Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The Adventurer Guild had asked for a conversation for a while, but things had been delayed because of current occurrences. Seth had been busy in the past few days and so they made an appointment for the day after the announcement.

With that, people from the Adventurer Guild were the only ones that showed up with an actual appointment. To make things grander, it was not just the guild's vice-master who usually took care of public appearances.

Stepping into Seth's office was the elusive guild master of the Adventurer guild. He had actually appeared in their embassy. Unlike the vice-guild master who always looked a little shifty and word items, the guild master had really adapted to Urth, to the point Seth thought he was a local.

With a tailor-made suit and slicked-back blonde hair, he looked almost like a business mogul, if it wasn't for the massive scar along his cheek, which gave him more of a mobster vibe. The last time Seth saw him was during the great assembly, but they had never spoken.

His appearance here showed how serious of a situation it was. It seemed like they had not only lost contact with the stronghold, but with all adventurers in the holy land. It seemed like all of their forces

had been wiped out, which made them desperate for information.

"Hello Tower Master, it is nice to finally meet you in person."

Seth rose from his seat to shake his hand.

"Hello, Guild Master. It is, although I didn't expect today to be the day. Come and have a seat. Do you want something to drink?"

After the pleasantries were over and everyone was supplied with a hit drink of their choosing, Steh brought out two sheets of paper.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions about what happened in the Holy Land and I have just the right witness that wants to talk with you, but please sign these first."

"What is this?" Bryce asked as he started to read the paper.

"Oh, just a simple non-disclosure agreement pertaining to sensitive information that may come up in this conversation but have no direct correlation to the information you are seeking."

It was something Mary had whipped up for this conversation. It was as the bard explained, a simple magic contract that forbids the disclosure of information such as the identity of the witness, or information about Seth and his skills he might mention.

Bryce thoroughly checked the agreement and even used an enchanted magnifying glass to make sure there were no hidden clauses. Only after he was sure that there were no traps, did he nod to the vice-master and they both signed the papers.

"Alright, Bement, you can come in!" Seth called out after he checked that the contracts were active.

"Bement!?" the two guys from the adventurer guild called out in surprise as the tall adventurer entered the room.

Seth decided it was for the best if he left the recollection of what happened to the guild's expedition to Bement, the original leader of said people. This was also the reason for the NDAs, as it would have been hard to explain his survival and what happened without mentioning some of Seth's powers.

The blacksmith could be the audience for the most part and left the talking to the guild people. His turn only came at the end, when the questions turned to the attacker. Seth described his short encounter with the monstrous man, his overall stats, and the suspected source of his power.

With the magic contract that shut them up, Seth didn't have to come up with many lies, though he still didn't just reveal everything. He only mentioned that he had gained the limited ability to revive someone as his subordinate thanks to a blessing and having an item that could turn him invisible. Although the first was rare, the latter was nothing unheard of. Just recently there had been a whole wave of invisible attackers in Delta.

"Here, I can give some of these, if you know a witch, dark magician, or shaman specialized in curses and hexes," Seth ended his report of the events.

He brought out a small box where he kept the toes, fingers, and slices of meat he had managed to find after Dragos successfully escaped from him. It was for exactly this kind of purpose. A special kind of curses and shamanic magic had great power and utility if the caster possessed a piece of the target.

When Hair, finger-, or toenails were already sufficient, full toes, fingers, and slices of meat and bones had to work even better, right? This was his fail-safe. Even if Dragos managed to get away, with so many pieces of him, Seth was sure he could make the man's life hell, or outright end it, as long as he found the right specialists.

Bryce and the vice-guild master barely kept their expressions from derailing when Seth proudly displayed sliced pieces of people's meat to them like a butcher. For their mental health, they didn't look closer into what exactly was in the box.

"Ah, errm, well..." the vice-guild master stuttered

"Vice-Guild master. Please, take a toe and a finger and keep them safe," the guild master said seriously, staring into the void somewhere above the chest with gory bits.

"You mean- Wait, why me?" "Because I, the guild master asked you to, VICE-guild master."

With an unwilling expression, the vice-guild master gave in and rummage around in the chest until he retracted his hand with a big toe and a pinky finger.

"A last question, Bement. What happened to the basement of the stronghold?"

Seth stared at his new subordinate. It was clear that the guild master was asking about the materials they had smuggled away. He wanted to see how Bement would act. The man's face darkened in grief.

"It was completely destroyed guild master. I'm sorry."

He was given a performance he would have never expected. Was that a tear?! Did that massive muscle man just push out a tear? What was with that award-winning acting? The sorrow on his face seemed so real. There was no way to tell that he was actually lying.

"I see. That would be all from us. Thank you for your cooperation, Tower Master."

Bryce was controlling his emotions well, as he stood up to shake Seth's hand and bit farewell. The Adventurer Guild had lost a lot with this expedition, more than even the guilds of Delta. He did well, just haven a waxen expression as he left the office.

…

"Isn't there anything we can do?"

The one unhappiest with the overall situation was most likely Ichabod Longbottom. Minas Mar had completely embarrassed Delta's leadership in front of the public. Not only had they defeated the hero with laughable ease and forced Delta to comply, but now they even announced their independence.

Frustration was eating away at Ichabod's mind. He had done everything as he was told and everything was going swimmingly, just like they said. But the moment that despicable tower master returned-!

It was all because of that reliable hero! He dared to lose, but even worse, he lost in such an embarrassing way. Now they were stuck with having to find a saint or bishop that could lift the curse. Otherwise, they would lose even more reputation.

"Is there really nothing we can do?"

"We have been researching the old legislations for a way to interfere but we have found nothing yet. The wording is very clear. Any people that wish to live outside of the districts are allowed to do so."

Ichabod tore at his hair. Old laws were no help to him. They had been very lax during the foundation of the district, fearing the backlash of the people. The humans had been enticed to move to the districts, not forced.

The only restriction was about big corporations stationed within the districts not being allowed to exploit natural resources outside of the districts to make profits inside. However, bringing this old law up now was just shooting his own foot.

In their current situation, it was political suicide to try and stop the influx of resources from outside. It wasn't just about local forces, he would also bring the external forces up against him if he interfered in this.

With Minas Mar declaring their independence, even if they called themselves a district, they were an external entity, which guaranteed them autonomy by the old laws. They could restrict trade with Minas Mar, but this only brought them back to the first problem of interfering with the flow of resources. Minas Mar controlled and maintained the only safe trade route between Delta and the outside.

The only way left was force. If they wiped them out and took over the trade route-

As his thought kept spiraling down and kept going in that direction, only to be denied, he felt his special communication token vibrate.

"Yes?" he answered the call in a hurry.

"Do nothing?! But!"

"We will take care of this. Just keep managing your side and keep the losses to a minimum. Stabilize your position. That is all we need you to do. If you do a good job, you will be rewarded. Got it?"

"..Yes. Understood.