Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth felt relaxed. He did not think Mark was someone stupid with bad intentions. Even if he was, at this point in time it did not really matter anymore. Seth did not really feel threatened. He had finished most of his equipment; some were even better than he could have wished for. The church backed him, and he did not plan to stay in Y-City for much longer.

If Baker decided to make trouble for him Seth was sure he could deal with it.

"So it was true! Then this auction access was just a diversion..." he mumbled.

"Would you be willing to work for the association? If we had someone on your level to provide weapons for us, we could provide materials and -"

Working with the association was a good chance. They had hoarded a lot of materials and Seth might have been able to grind out a few levels at their place, but he interrupted Baker's speech.

"Not really."

He rejected the offer. To really profit from this deal he would not be able to hold back. Seth saw quite a few problems with mindlessly mass-producing rare and epic rated items for others.

First and foremost was protecting his advantage. Right now his knowledge of enchantments was his biggest advantage. He would have no control over what would happen to these weapons if he worked with the association. Blacksmiths or other classes could analyze the weapons and copy the enchantments.

And the other was that he did not want to break the power balance in this place. Who knew what a militaristic force with an overwhelming advantage in weaponry would decide to do in the future? It was better the way it was now. The people of Y-City could slowly struggle and grow together.

Seth was not a starry-eyed idealist, but he preferred not taking part in the establishment of a dystopian society.

Baker sighed.

"I did not want to bring this up, but we know that you and your party are involved with the recent invasion. We could overlook it if you worked together with the government," he said seriously.

Now Seth was convinced that not taking the bait was the correct decision.

"How? We were not even in town when it happened."

Baker explained their process of how they found the connection to his party.

"So... you are trying to coerce me based on a bunch of conjectures. Do you really think that's a smart move?"

"What do you mean?" Mark asked a little confused.

"I guess you haven't really processed the recent influx of information yet. I made those items on the auction stage, no?" he pointed at the stage, where the auction was in full play.

"And since my arrival here I stayed at the church. What does that mean, Sherlock? Take a wild guess." he even tried using <Voice of Seth> to get his point across.

A look of realization dawned on Mark's face before he wiped it with his hand. He had understood that he was currently vying for an associate with the system church. The system church would take apart this case in an instant if he dared to press charges based on their investigation.

Mark took a deep breath and sighed with a smile. "It's a shame. I would have really liked to work closely with you."

"No hard feelings. I just prefer to work on my own terms. Oh look, the surprise items of the auction are revealed. They came out really good."

After the armors were auctioned off, the finisher was the collection of mechanical watches with powerful enchantments. They were not just stylish and told the time, they could also easily substitute any bracelet currently on the market.

Seth had not held back much with the enchantments, as the materials were common at best. The watches gave attribute bonuses of up to +20. He had also made sure the engravings looked really stylish.

"You made those, too?"

"Yep. Well, not the watches themself. I just enchanted them."

Mark sighed again and fell silent again. Maybe it was worth offending the system church. But maybe the bigger question was, whether he wanted to offend Seth at this point. He had stayed lowkey all the time, there was literally nothing to gain to go against him at this time.

It might be better to stay on his good side. Seth noticed that Baker had become quiet and thoughtful. He patted his shoulder to get his attention.

"The auction has ended. You should go home now."

Seth left Baker behind and went to the reception. He gave them a list of people to invite. Some he had chosen beforehand; others were recommended by Al today. They were invited to one of the meeting rooms in the venue. Some came, some didn't.

When he entered, he found 5 people sitting in the room. He already knew one of them from seeing him.

It was Inigo Monte who had helped to demonstrate the power of the swords during the auction several weeks prior. He was a man in his early forties and his age showed with the slight belly. He had been a fencing teacher before the apocalypse.

Although fencer was not a special class, his prior experience was a big advantage, especially in the beginning. As such he was still among the upper range of players, despite being unaffiliated.

The other four he only knew from files, rumors, or Al's descriptions. From left to right there were a tall skinny man, a wide muscular guy, an explosive woman, and a silent man wearing a cloak and hat.

The first was Damien Sedue and his moniker was "The Stalking Mantis". He had a rare assassin class that allowed him to dual-wield chain sickles. Unlike most assassins, he was known as a capable vanguard. It was just that his choice of weapon was very uncommon, so it was hard to find a good one. He was a typical glass cannon.

The wide muscleman was Cliff H. Anger also called "The Damned" he had a unique class that wielded a heavy broadsword, and his skills were based on feints.

These three were more or less those recommended by the church. The other two were among those he and Al had found on the auction.

The explosive woman was Monique Lest. She had no moniker Seth knew of, but her rare class seemed quite interesting. It was called "Turtle Warrior" and the skills focused on counters instead of direct attacks.

It seemed like a great class for a solo player as her level was already close to 50 without her having made a name for herself.

The last one, clad in a cloak and hiding his features was "The Crimson Blade" Seth had heard about during the auction. His name was Jonah Miller and Seth understood the moniker after he saw his class.

"Vampiric Swordsman" was an epic class that could manipulate and buff itself with its opponent's blood. Through the class, he inherited several powers of high-ranking vampires. Judging by the skills Al told him about he could even let his weapon fight on his own while he went into melee combat with claws.

Seth sat down at the top of the table and started off with the same speech he had given his party during their first meeting. This time he used <Voice of Seth> to better get his point across. He also told them of his plans to leave Y-City in the near future.

The vanguards were very different from his band of misfits. All of them stayed silent at first. Without saying a word, the Mantis and the Damned stood up and left. Inigo was still deliberating before he opened his mouth.

"I'm honored by the offer, but I have to declines. I grew up here in Y-City and here are my roots. I do not wish to leave my home for over 40 years behind."

After giving an honest and polite refusal he stood up and left. Now he was only left with the explosive beauty and the silent batman.

It was a velvety deep voice that suddenly asked.

"Before I make a decision, could you let me have a look at an example of the items you would provide us?