Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Hey you, is that your pet?" the crowd split, and one of the people that had been surrounded by it stepped forward. He wore puffy leather armor with fur elements and his well-toned arms were bandaged in leather straps.

He was pointing at Puffles, who was at this point almost as tall as Seth and happily munching on a bunch of meat skewers. The Ivicer had a growth spurt during the week they spent in the fog world. Even so, it had not leveled up, the caterpillar had become bigger and stronger.

Seth had made the mistake to look back to see what was going on. The guy took this as his affirmation that Puffles was his pet.

"What is your level?" he kept asking rudely. Seth turned away and wanted to ignore him, but then he felt the itch of an appraisal skill on himself.

"Heh! Just level 27. This pet is wasted on you. I'm the Beastmaster Cedric from the Hunter Association's Squad 1! I will pay you a good price for this creature if you hand it over! With my skills, I can truly bring out its potential!"

It was not just Seth, even Puffles was baffled, looking at him monologuing like a jerk. Seth, who always tried to see the best in people, fathomed that this guy might have a mental disability. Since it was probably rude to call him out on this, he decided again to ignore him and leave.

~ Are we really leaving this pest? The great me feels peeved to let this go. ~

It was rude to just appraise someone else, but he really could not blame a handicapped person. Seth whispered to Puffles and it understood his intentions. He was being the bigger man here.

"Hey, where do you think you are going when I'm talking to you? Didn't you hear what I said? I'm from Squad 1. How much do you want for your pet? Hey, are you retarded? I'm talking to you!"

He grabbed for Seth's shoulder and the next moment he was squashed under Puffles massive hard-shelled body. Seth could be the bigger man, but why Puffles was already the greatest, so why hold back?

It was Seth's turn to use <Observation>, though it did not give him a lot.

<Cedric Hall lv. 35>

"Get it off me, you pleb! How dare you attack a member of Squad 1!" He was still very talkative and kept complaining and blaming like a child. Despite Puffles being more than 10 levels lower, he easily overwhelmed the player.

"Cedric? We are leaving what- What is going on here!?" a group of young people had finally followed the Beastmaster, led by a young and charismatic-looking magic swordsman. Wow, they really looked like a generic hero-party from a comic book. Just that their equipment was ugly and mismatched. But hey, only performance matters, right?

Behind the leader was a High-priestess, a Sorcerer, a Scout, a Guardian, and a Shadowthief. They did not just look like a generic party; their stat distribution was too. As if following an online guide, they all focused on two or three attributes at most. They completely ignored the rest. Just like most would in an MMORPG.

The information was conveniently supplied by Al'Zalsa in form of sarcastic remarks.

The man in the front took in the scene before him and Seth could see the resignation on his face.

"Not again..." he mumbled while facepalming. The party members in the back also looked rather annoyed. With a sigh, the leader stepped forward.

"Hello, I'm Kai, the leader of Squad 1. I apologize for my useless party member's rude behavior and hope you could forgive him this one time."

This already seemed studied. Did this guy act up so often?

"Kai? What are you saying, I only said that I could make much better use of this pet- Kyaaa"

One of Puffles' scythes had dug deep into the Beastmaster's shoulder.

"Kyurrrr"

~ Vermin like you has no right to talk like that. ~

"It's right. Shut up you beast-crazy maniac! I've had enough of your bul-hmpph!" The high-priestess had started to rant from the back but was silenced by the Guardian's massive hand.

"Lena, stop it. It's bad enough Cedric acts so shameful in public. Sir, please forgive him and let him go. I'm sure the is a non-violent way to solve this." the leader pleaded sincerely.

Looking at the chaotic group of players Seth judged a fight to be unlikely. He had already had a plan to subdue them. Since none of them hat a lot of points in Willpower it would have been easy to flatten them with <Dragonmight>. Alas, it was not necessary for now.

He had a better idea to solve it. These people had just left the dungeon, maybe he could mug- ask for some materials from them. But how to go about it...? Brute force, what was there to lose?

"Hmm, sure. There is an easy way to solve this. I don't need money, but I'm a crafter class and you probably saw how hard it is to get good materials around here. Maybe you could reimburse me with rare material? I would appreciate leather specifically." he said with a huge business smile.

The party blinked, even Cedric was a little surprised by this turn of events. What Seth did not know was that rare materials were practically worthless at the moment. The government hoarded them for the time when the crafting classes got that far, but at the moment those things were simply stored away somewhere.

This made Seth's offer the more enticing solution. Nobody in the hunter association would miss some rare leather, but the party would be hard-pressed if they had to reimburse him with their own money.

On the other hand, it was also slightly suspicious that a crafter asked for a material he probably could not process. Seth didn't really get their confusion and just kept waiting for an answer. It created a convenient misunderstanding in the party's minds: Seth chose this option because he knew it and he gave them face by offering an easy solution!

Their hearts warmed at the thought, that there were still good people like Seth in this city. Well, except Cedric's who got closer and closer to death due to blood loss.

"We have two kinds of rare leather, will these suffice?"

The leader brought out two large sheets of leather. One was thin and gray while the other was very thick and brown.

<Groundape Chestleather, Crafting Material, Rare,

The leather of a Groundape's chest area where he would drum with his fist to activate his skill <Shockwave>. High affinity with Earth-Element. >

<Killerbat Wing leather, Crafting Material, Rare,

The wing leather of a Killerbat, known to kill its prey with sonic waves. Good affinity with Wind-Element and Darkness.>

"Yes, these are great. Thank you very much!" Seth said joyfully and Puffles got off of the Beastmaster. Unwillingly, the high-priestess started healing Cedric while Seth said his goodbyes and left.

What a fortuitous encounter, Seth thought to himself as he returned to the church. He had gotten a bunch of leather for Link's armor, without working for it. Maybe he should leave the house more often?

Seth shook his head. He reminded himself, that the city might seem peaceful, but this world was not a big orchard where he could go around and just pick fruits. It was an orchard with venomous snakes hiding between the fruits.

It was best he stayed in a workshop, instead of the battlefield.

Yes, yes, safety came first.

It was definitely not, because he wanted to laze around...