Zhu Ling fled through the streets of the Pythian Village. His stars were still hurting and the battering he experienced had also left him hurting all over. But hotter than the burning of his wounds was his indignation and anger.

“How dare these wenches set me up like this!” he exclaimed, to let off steam. He had lost a lot of face today.

“Brother, you should call the people from the Zhu family! What is Minas Mar? Once they face off against true experts, they will see how great the world is!” Zhu Lan, his younger cousin from a subsidiary family branch, advised him.

He was right, although he had come alone to have some fun before the event, there were many of his uncles and their men around Little Gamma, waiting for the tournament.

“If we could rally them…it wouldn’t be enough to face Minas Mar, but we probably could take our revenge!” dark desires had returned to his eyes, as he imagined what he would do to that cat girl and the elf, once he got his hands on them.

“Don’t forget about me, Brother,” his cousin called out, seeing Zhu Ling already pondering about his perverted hobbies.

“Kukuku. Don’t worry, I leave them intact enough, so you guys can also have your fun with them!” he laughed happily as if everything was already solved.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over the group of men surrounding Zhu Ling, the shadow of a blacksmith.

…

Sure, the bard had decided to treat life a little more preciously, but he didn’t see any reason to show mercy in this case. Master Mountain had already warned them about the culture of the Voracious Cloud Continent.

Cultivators were usually two-faced. Whether they lost fair and square, fled, or begged for mercy, they would plot their revenge afterward nine times out of ten. This was why Seth decided to follow them and give him a chance to prove this wrong.

Well, they were not the tenth case, so the blacksmith decided to have them vanish for good. Surprisingly, “Young Master” Zhu didn’t have the kind of near-death warning system that Elder Ho of the Silk River Sect had. Maybe his own clan had hoped for him to fall on Urth.

Or they didn’t expect for someone to directly rip his soul out of his body. Now, Seth had six new, big souls in his pocket. Five of which had an ego, albeit a nasty one. After getting his groceries, Seth decided it was time to surprise his girlfriends.

...

After paying for the trashed tavern, using the money from the cronies they caught, and locking the guys away, Mina and the others left the place to return to their accommodations in Minas Mar’s branch building at the foot of Little Gamma’s Guardian Tree.

Suddenly a man in dark robes stepped in their way. An ominous presence surrounded the strangers as he silently blocked the path.

“What do you want? Are you another one of those wimps looking for a fight?!” Fin exclaimed, hungry for another fight. The last one was seemingly not enough.

“Oh! Whoops, forgot to take off the robe. Sorry guys!” Seth exclaimed belatedly and removed the hood, allowing them to see his face and legendary armor below the robe.

“Seth?” they exclaimed surprised. “Seth!” Fin exclaimed happily and charged at him like a bullet, taking him off his feet.

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“Seth! What brings you here?” Bulko asked happily surprised.

“I'm done with my stuff and came to visit my girlfriends,” Seth said, laughing as Mina helped him up. “What else would it be?” she asked with a chuckle and gave him a deep kiss.

“Ah! I wanted to do that...” Fin whined, having her thunder stolen.

“How was Y-City? Let's talk inside.” Mina asked attentively, taking his right arm. Fin hurriedly sized up and took his left as they led him inside. Awkward, Lyxiss, Bulko, and Ray followed the lovebirds.

They spent all night until deep into the early morning eating, drinking, and talking. Seth spoke about the time in Y-City and the weird creatures he came across. He didn't mention was he did with Zhu Ling. Mina and the others talked about their day in little Gamma and how their task had slowly shifted from testing and guarding the venue to catching guys like the young master. It was a fun night after a long time of being apart.

…

Fin and Mina took the next two days off since there was a lot to catch up on between the three of them. Mina was especially starved. By the end of it, Seth felt more tired than when he arrived, but also very satisfied.

When he woke up on the third day after he came to Little Gamma, he found that the girls were already busy getting dressed.

“Are you leaving me already?” the bard asked flirtatiously, as he lay naked in the bed, the blankets barely covering the important bits. Mina gulped hard, seeing his exposed chest as he lolled around in bed, seductively.

“You evildoer! P-Pack away those perfectly shaped packs! Y-You will not seduce Mina once again! We really have to get back to work. Bulko and the others can't do it without us for too long. Don't you have to do something to do, too?” Fin suddenly acted as the voice of reason.

“At least swallow before reprimanding me!” Mina scoffed at the fairy, who was hypnotized by the blacksmith's muscles.

Resisting the bard's charm, the two finally left their flat, leaving Seth behind. With a sigh, he also got dressed. In one thing Fin was right, the blacksmith did have something to do. Mike's Armor was waiting to be brought into this world through his hands.

The Slaughterer's Set, a blueprint given to him by a god, was no easy piece of work. However, it was the difficulty that made Seth happy, since it came from the need of various skills to make it, which were the perfect prerequisites for his skill to take full effect.

For example, the Usekh, the color that would cover the shoulders, had a similar structure to chain armor, but it asked for a lot of ostentatious embellishments with necessitated the work of a goldsmith. It was the same for the wide belt with a skirt and the bracers. He would be able to bring in all of his master-tier skills for most of the set pieces.

Of course, this also necessitated the fitting materials for the embellishments. It was a good thing he had looted Y-City. He had left most of the equipment to Baker, but he still had the materials of Donnchadh with him and didn't have to return to Minas Mar to get some.

His first stop after getting up was the in-house restaurant for breakfast and then he found the local manager for an empty room where he could set up the workshop. After getting everything ready, he started summoning his forge, anvil, furnace, and so on and so forth, and lastly Sivri. He didn't summon Cerberus because the blacksmith golem was busy making items for Minas Mar.

“Urgh,” Sivri exclaimed when she appeared.

“What's up?” the blacksmith asked at her sudden reaction.

“I can smell what you did for the past three days. Maybe you should wash up before we continue?” the golden dwarf suggested.

“oh...Sure,” Seth answered embarrassed and quickly used magic to wash up. “Better?”

“Slightly,” Sivri said with a nod.

“...Wait a minute! You can't even smell!” the bard exclaimed indignantly.

“Tehe!” she laughed, sticking out her tongue.

“Don't you “tehe” me, you little-” “Okay, okay, enough joking. Should we start? You want to make the slaughterer's set, right?” the dwarf hurriedly changed the topic. Still a little peeved, Seth took a deep breath. He would make her pay for this.

“... Fine, here,” he said and unloaded a pile of uncut gems from Donnchadh's hoard on the floor.

“You do have the gem cutter skill, right? Here is a stuff of stones and the shapes I need. Can I leave the processing to you?”

Although the blacksmith was able to copy the process of gem cutting by using his ability to forge anything with Charon's Obol and , it was not the same. After all, there was a whole class specialized in gem cutting alone. There were benefits in the correct cut, that Seth couldn't achieve by just shaping some stone. Sivri was not a gem cutter, but she had a skill for it, which was a lot better than not having it when talking about the performance of the gem. The right cut could raise a stone by a whole tier or two.

“Alright,” she said obediently, facing the huge pile of gems Seth left for her.