Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

---Minas Mar---

Slowly, Seth walked through the dungeon in the style of an ancient ruin. Hieroglyphs and reliefs nobody could understand covered the walls, giving the place an aura of mysticism and danger. He unwittingly stepped on a pressure plate and a volley of poison arrows rained on him, only to be deflected by his armor, dealing no damage whatsoever. The party behind him gasped in awe.

“I stepped on it on purpose, to show you what can happen if you are not careful in places like this, where traps and monsters are mixed together,” he quickly explained to his passengers.

Since the blacksmith needed to wait for Neeco Boos to finish the death gambeson before he could attune the parts of the integrated circuits, he picked up the same work as Mina, Fin, and the others. Technically, he volunteered as a nanny to help young people who just came of age in Delta to level up and explain the basics of adventuring.

Originally, he wanted to go with his girlfriend, but he was simply too good. Seth could heal, fight, tank, and support with buffs and debuffs. As an absolute allrounder, the others convinced him that it was better to solo the role of a bus for a party.

When he suggested that he would also take part in this program, Bryce from the Adventurer Guild personally asked him to be in charge of their promising first-timers. Seth doubted that he was qualified to guide such young people on adventuring, however, Bryce insisted that he just needed to make sure their first dungeon run went without hiccups.

“Oh, look. There is a monster house up ahead. I think you guys are ready to fight them on your own. Don't worry, I'm here. I won't let you experience death on your first time in a dungeon,” he spoke motivatingly, using the to strike confidence in his trainees today.

The party behind him were all people slightly younger than Evee. As the age of adulthood was 15, according to the system, that was also the time people would be able to choose their first class. The boys and girls behind him had faced the apocalypse, without the support of the system. They were lucky that they had been living in Delta at the time.

It explained the harsh gaze in their eyes. Despite this being their first time in the dungeon, it wasn't the first time they were facing monsters. In many ways, these kids were much stronger than Seth was when the apocalypse started. Well, that wasn't really hard, they also suffered three years of hardship, unlike Seth at the time.

“You just have to do what you learned at the academy. Just remember the formation and attack,” Seth encouraged them, as they hesitated to enter the monster house. This was already Seth's third time, over the past three days, that he guided a group of newbies. He was confident that they could do it.

This was a low-level dungeon with monsters ranging from lv.1 to 2. Although it had the design of a temple ruin, the monsters inside were stuff like snakes, spiders, scorpions, lizards, and jackals. Although the beasts were hard to look at, they had no intelligence like humanoid opponents.

The children nodded at his words and slowly inched into the room, filled with lv.1 spiders the size of Chihuahuas. In the back, Seth held Gleobem and played a benign tune. It was no demonic ballad or dark piece, but it was a simple, genuine song that could slightly strengthen the party and improve the morale.

As the bard said, the trainees quickly found confidence as the strategies they were taught at the adventurer academy worked without a problem. Slowly, Seth stopped going in the front and left it to the thief of the party to detect the low-level traps. By the time they reached the boss room on the third floor, the blacksmith had no reason to interfere anymore.

All of the members of the small party had leveled up to level 2 and felt ready to face the boss mob. Seth gave them a moment to face reality before he stepped in. The moment they entered the boss room, their formation was destroyed and the party was wasted.

Even when they were ori huma and the same level as the boss, the boss was a beast with stats vastly outstripping its level. This was also something they had to learn, unless they had a class, skill, or gear to overcome the level difference, no strategy with a small party could help them win.

The lv.2 jackal Boss the size of a big dog easily brushed off the tank's taunt, mowed down the vanguard, and charged at the rear guard made up of a mage and a support. It was only when they were facing serious injuries that Seth stepped in.

A strong grip caught the jackal's neck right before it could rip of the caster's face, holding the boss like a naughty kitten. No matter how the jackal struggled, there was no resisting the iron grip of the blacksmith.

“What are you doing? Come on, finish it off.” “Yes, Mr. Smith!”

Gulping at the display of strength, the teens did not hesitate for long and quickly started attacking the helpless boss. Once the boss was defeated, the return formation and a small treasure chest appeared. With sparkling eyes, the trainees looted three silver and a belt from the dungeon chest. Their happiness of earning three silver was quite adorable.

“Before we leave, come here for a moment,” he called the group. Although they had managed well, they were not without injuries. Although they had a supporter, he didn't know any healing spells, so Seth took it upon himself.

He played a short song activating Healing Tunes of , one of Lesath's passive effects. As he played, the smaller and bigger wounds quickly vanished, leaving the party a little dirty, but healthy.

“Okay, let's leave this place. “ “Thank you, sir!”

As the trainees entered the return formation, Seth waited at the side to make sure everyone made it back. The last one to step into the formation was the caster who almost lost his face, literally. But he hesitated before stepping in.

“Mr.Smith, you are really strong, right?” he asked carefully, as it was not appropriate to ask for the level of someone else.

“Hmm, I believe there would be quite a few people who would say that, yeah.”

“Th-then maybe...” He took a deep breath, collecting his confidence. “Then maybe you could-” but he suddenly halted. “I could?” “No, please forget what I said,” the caster said with a wry smile and quickly vanished in the return formation. Seth frowned after he was gone.

What was he supposed to do now? It was clear that the boy wanted to ask for help with something. Could he really just forget it? Maybe he should at least mention it to the academy teacher or something. As he pondered, he also stepped into the formation, appearing outside the dungeon. Although the rest of the party was still here, the mage boy had already run off.

“Seth, are you already done?” Mina called out, walking toward him. Before he could answer, Fin had already thrown herself in his arms. Behind them were also Bulko and Lyxiss. Since they were doing this as Lords of Minas Mar, and not someone nameless like Seth, they actually came from one of the few high-level dungeons nearby.

“Whoa, you are from Yulecat's Fur! Mr. Smith, you knew Lords from Minas Mar?!” the party leader of the trainees exclaimed. Despite Mina calling out his name it seemed like they didn't catch on.

“Yes, and I will probably have to leave with them. Here take this and get something to celebrate on your own,” Seth said awkwardly and hesitated a moment before giving him two silver coins.

His first instinct was to give him a gold coin, but thinking of their reaction to 3 silver, that might have melted their little brains. Although Credits were still accepted, system currency had become more prevalent in ordinary life and a silver was by no means little, if one could get a good meal for 40 copper, and that was after the price rose.

“Thank you, Mr. Smith!” the party called out with glistening eyes. “I'm glad that you were our guide for our first time,” the leader added. Now they had five silver to celebrate their first dungeon run.

“Let's get something to eat, too,” Seth whispered to his friends as they quickly distanced themselves from the teens. The bard's responsibility ended the moment they got out of the dungeon. At this point, the restaurant in Delta could not compete with the quality of Link's food, but they had a good atmosphere.

They dined and talked until late evening when Seth's communication orb suddenly vibrated.

“S-Seth!”, a tailor that looked like a corpse exclaimed, “I did it! The gambeson is finished...”

The moment he ended his sentence, Neeco slipped out of the frame. He probably fell unconscious. Seth could only shake his head. Despite telling him to look out for himself, the tailor had really strained himself to finish quickly.

“Thanks, Neeco. I will come by tomorrow,” he said and cut the connection.