Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

”It's been a while since we met last. You look horrible.” the bard greeted her, the helm of hades he just took off in his hands. The helm vanished and Laraweg returned to his head, as he equipped it through the status screen.

“S-Seth? What are you doing here?” she asked muffled, as it was hard to speak with her swollen lips.

“Obviously, I'm saving you, aren't I? Although I originally just came here to ask where Tano'Mol ran off to. You DO know where he is, right?” the bard asked friendly.

“C-Could you untie me first?” She asked pitifully.

“I don't know, can I?” Seth asked with a big smile. He wasn't acting like this because of cruelty, but because he had taken a look at her status. Sandra Irving was not just someone working for the goat to collect souls in Urth's ruins. It seemed that she was also one of the very rare mage that specialized in spatial magic.

While Alison was a wizard who was able to use Space Magic thanks to a scroll, Sandra was a genuine space mage, like Idyllin Mo. She was currently bound with a rope that sealed her magic, otherwise, she would have been able to teleport away at any point in time.

Now, Seth was not a very trusting person and he didn't quite know Sandra's personality or how she would act in this situation. He preferred to get the info he needed before she was able to simply run away and leave him in the dust.

Facing Seth's smile, the businesswoman quickly caught onto his meaning. She had not noticed Seth appraising her, but it seemed that he knew her skills, explaining his current actions.

“Tano'Mol is currently hiding in a safe house in the human district, close to the parliament building. I will bring you there. I have no reason to run, he also wanted to meet you,” she mumbled. “Can you release me now?” she pleaded.

Seth pursed his lips as he gauged her. Finally, the Blacksmith decided to give her a credit of trust and undid the ropes she was bound with. The ropes in question wandered in his inventory since they were actually quite rare and expensive. As a service, he also used healing magic, helping her to recover from her wounds.

“Thank you, Tower Master,” she said, having recovered some of her composure.

“No need to thank me, let's go look for the goat, I need a good soul or two.”

“I can bring us there right away,” she said and opened a portal with a wave of her hand.

Past the portal, Seth was able to see a dark vault, filled with the hundreds of soul vessels that used to hang in Tano'Mol's Soul Emporium. With an inviting gesture, Sandra asked him to enter first. After a moment of hesitation, Seth stepped in. The place was a lot less organized than the original store, it was apparent that this was more of a makeshift storage than a well-put-together store.

“Sandra!? Is that you? Are you okay?” the goat came running, worry on its hairy face. The demon came to a grinding halt when he saw who stood in front of the portal.

“Seth? SETH! You- This is your fault!” the goat screeched incensed, but he didn't dare attack the blacksmith. He just kept huffing and puffing, not even really cursing at him. From the demon's tirade, Seth was able to assemble the story of what had happened.

The bard had created the Devil's Wheel Fiddle with the demonic soul Tano'Mol had sold him. Back then, the goat did talk about how he could get in trouble for trading the souls of demons. Nothing would have happened, if not for Seth.

By using the soul on his musical instrument and broadcasting his music across the demon network, there were not few people who were able to pick up that there was a demonic soul used to make those tunes.

Now that in itself was nothing bad, but among them were also those people who were not supposed to know what had happened to this soul. These people managed to follow the trail back to Urth and finally to Tano'Mol one of the three only Soul Traders on Urth. So, technically, it was Seth's fault the demon had to suddenly relocate since Seth's actions circumvented all the measures he did to erase his trails.

“Okay, Okay, I think I got the gist of it, you can stop whining now. Are you still in business or not?”

“WHAT?”

“I think it is time to stop now, Sir Mol,” Sandra, who came during his speech, spoke up.

“I have spent the last three days being tortured and it was thanks to Mr. Smith saving me, that I can be here now.”

“Oh, no! Are you okay now?” the demon quickly waddled over to her, taking her hands.

“Who even are those guys that are after you?” Seth finally asked. They were people with quite expensive items and henchmen with a lot of experience in torture. Depending on who they were, maybe he could simply help the goat and get a few discounts? Tano'Mol squinted his eyes at him.

“The previous master of the Soul's owner, Bragmomal, a rather violent Demon King with a lord backing him. He already has a sizable following here in Delta,” Tano'Mol explained.

“Is he one of those rascals from the more extreme faction?” Seth asked, thinking of the reason why half of the Bard College and many demons had moved to Minas Mar. There has been an increase of volatile elements among the demon community, was Bragmomal one of them?

“You could say he is one of the most extreme I know,” the demon said, finally calmed down.

“Then why are you still in Delta? Couldn't you have gone somewhere else?”

“Now that he knows my name, it will be hard to hide. His methods are not really... subtle. I doubt any of my business partners would be willing to shield me.”

“How about you stay at Minas Mar? I can free some space in our embassy for you,” the blacksmith threw out the bait, knowing that that the demon had nowhere else to go.

“You want to offer me protection?” the demon asked warily.

“Or you directly work for me. I could make you something like the Director of Soul Acquisitions, sound nice, right?”

“All you want are my souls and connections! You Devil!” the demon cried out angrily.

“I won't deny that I need your skills, but it's not all I want. I'm just being honest with you since we are good acquaintances. When I offer to help you, I also want to keep using your services. I just thought, if you joined us straight away, I would have a better excuse to go against Bragmomal.”

“You what..? You want to go against a Demon King? Did you lose your mind? He's what the system would call a legend!” the goat exclaimed exasperated.

“Even better, then he won't dare to come here for the time being. We can just pick off his followers as they come,” Seth said matter-of-factly. If he could get the soul trader and a source of readily delivered demon souls, he was not against it.

Although the system didn't block legendary individuals from entering Urth anymore, since the Guardian Tree reached the legendary stage, everyone else didn't know that. Unless a legendary beast happened to stumble in and was found, or another creature reached the legendary realm and was found, nobody would find out either.

“That's what you think! Do you think nobody noticed your summoning and who answered it? I can assure you, the some of the demons know that Urth is no longer protected.” Tano'Mol revealed a mistake Seth had not noticed before.

The “new gods” that the Scene had turned into were probably on the same stage as deities or legends. He had sacrificed seven of them and summoned a creature even stronger than them... how could he have forgotten the kind of impact it had?

Of course, the empires of the Pathworks were probably none the wiser, but what about the demons? When a giant whale suddenly started moving, wouldn't it make waves? When the goat mentioned it, Seth had no doubts that there would have been demons that noticed this. The fact he was able to summon such a creature was easy proof that the system no longer blocked legends from entering.

Now that he thought about it, was it true that the Pathwork empires didn't know? Even if they didn't know about the Scene and the demon he summoned, there was the field boss Lezzekai, who was definitely close to or above the legendary grade. Maybe the only reason anybody was yet to send a legend over, was the wariness of others doing the same? Who said there were not already legends roaming around...?

But Seth also had a legend, that was constantly growing, literally. Legend also didn't necessarily mean great combat power, so...

“I will still offer you to come to Minas Mar, though we can try to keep it secret for now.”

“...Fine.”