Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

They had a name, a crest, titles, and sigil rings. They took a moment to talk about the other ring Seth made, but most people wanted to get to what they had been doing. Seth didn't stop them and soon the 13 Lords had dispersed again.

Aside from Mina and Fin, Mary and Jane stayed back instead of leaving with Tekar. At some point their unofficial job had become babysitting Ruby and they hung around the father and daughter a lot.

"We would like to talk with you about something." Jane stepped forward and spoke for them. They looked determined. Seth had wanted to visit the church with Fin and Mina but asked them to wait.

"What can I help you with?" Seth asked curiously. He felt a little bad that he had not really taken much time to interact with the two after they arrived in Y-City.

"We want to make ourselves useful, too!" the shy Mary broke out.

"We know that we can't really help with the fight, so we would like to become non-combat personal," Jane explained.

"So, what's your plan?"

"We want to change our class. I wish to become a Merchant and Mary can become a Scribe. I could take care of the Shop and Mary could be like your assistant?" she fumbled a little, but their plan seemed solid.

Seth thought about their suggestion. The more he thought about it, the more he understood her point. He was a blacksmith and really didn't want to take care of managing a shop or the guild. people to take care of the administrative staff were needed. The girls were right, they had no talent for fighting. But did they have one for the administrative work?

Even if they had no great talent, grooming someone you already trust was easier than finding a stranger to trust. In the best case, Drosi and his people could help them at the start. Seth kept nodding as he thought about it.

"Yes, I think that is a good idea. Do you think you are up for this task?"

"A-actually before everything went to shit, I was studying economy. I think I can handle managing a shop." Jane said more or less confidently.

"I was a secretary before," Mary commented in a small voice. Her outbreak before had probably used up all her courage.

This explained how they got the idea to rather take up administrative roles.

"Couldn't you do that without changing your class?" Seth asked concerned. Completely changing one's class was possible, but it had a price.

It was different from evolving one's class. One would lose half their levels and proficiency in their current class skills. Class skills would also be degraded to secondary skills or completely lost. The price was not worth mentioning early on, but the girls were already close to level 30.

"I think the skills of a merchant will be needed for future business. It will make a lot of things easier." Jane asserted. Mary nodded behind her.

"Hmm, alright then. We just wanted to leave for the church. You can come along."

The five people left in the room teleported to the reception hall of the church. While Mina, Seth, and Fin would go together to meet the empire's official in charge of energy.

After leaving the reception the girls split off and asked a clerk how to change their class.

Seth's group found Simon and left the church from the backdoor. They brought out the cloaks to hide their appearance. Now that the Willis Family was onto them, they needed to be a little more careful.

Their destination was the administration office of Delta. It was a giant office building that Delta now shared with the Empire. Before the apocalypse, it was the coalition-building where representatives of all districts would work.

Of course, now that contact was lost to most districts on the continents, it had lost its original function. There were still representatives of Beta and Y-City, but the cooperation was long since lost as their opinions in working with the empire differed too much.

All officials of Delta had their office in this building. Mike had told them that the Princess had already arranged an appointment with the two officials. The maze-like structure of the office building cost them almost thirty minutes to find the Empires Official. Fortunately, they had set off early enough.

They came before a strict-looking secretary who sent them through after taking their names.

"Ah, you must be Mr. Smith, right? The princess already informed me about the rough situation. I'm Archbold, the energy minister of Delta Province." they were greeted by a well-dressed middle-aged man. He was white kempt back hair and a groomed white mustache. A golden monocle sparkled in his eye.

He put down the paper he was reading and shook their hands one by one before asking them to sit. In the corner stood another person. He was a young man with tanned skin and dark brown hair. His hazel eyes gave him a warm and friendly aura. He wore a beige overall and a flat cap.

"This is Louis. I invited him since the princess told me that you might need help with the energy conversion. He's one of our best hex-engineers and should be able to help and install a converter for energy harvesting. I think he can explain it better than me."

It followed a lengthy talk where they explained the situation to Louis who seemed fascinated by the ancient technology. They also explained how the energy infrastructure with magic worked. Unlike electricity, magic could not simply be transferred through a network of cables. Powerlines like that would need extremely rare and precious materials.

Instead, it worked using an energy formation in each individual building. Other formations and devices could be connected to it and pull the needed energy through this connection. Mana Crystals were needed to supply these energy formations with power.

Mana crystals were literally crystalized mana. These crystals could be found and mined in places of power. But those deposits were rare, and the method was outdated. Although natural crystals were stronger, they could deal permanent damage to the mana cycle if they were mined excessively.

The modern method was the mentioned converters. They could be installed in areas with rich mana and artificially condense a mana crystal. It was like creating a mana battery.

Louis would only need to install a converter in the tower and Minas Mar could start selling artificial mana crystals to the Ministry of Energy. At Seth's answer, Archbold explained that the private trade of mana crystals was illegal.

On one hand, it was to discourage the illegal mining of mana crystals. On the other hand, these crystals were energy sources. Unregulated distribution could lead to accidents. The worst that could happen was that they were used for nefarious means or to power horrible spells or formations.

The converters would count the number of produced mana crystals and a hex-engineer would need to check these numbers in regular intervals. By comparing the crystals delivered and those produced they could make sure that none were unaccounted for.

Seth didn't mind. He had no plans to become an illegal crystal dealer. But they understood that that might have been the plan of the Willis Family. They could have kept the Tower a secret, build up an army and pay for resources with illegal mana crystal trade.

Since they probably had Urth's official in their pocket and their ancestors' knowledge they would have been able to pull it off. Even with Seth in charge of the tower, they probably thought of slowly but surely gaining a foot in the tower by paying him off.

Seth shared what happened and his suspicion with Archbold. Why didn't he suspect the Empires man? This was the first and strongest foothold of the Chrona Empire. They would not send the kind of incompetent personal that would be bribed by the natives. And the princess obviously trusted him with his job.

"If you feel better this way, I will deal with Shakes on my side. You don't have to go a meet him. I will also get the papers and license ready. In the meantime, you could go with Louis and take a look at the converters.

There was another reason why he went along with Archbold and Louis' suggestions. He had the handy pocket lich. The hex-engineer would not be able to install anything harmful with Al'Zalsa watching.

Louis took the lead and he led them into the belly of the beast. Every department had ample storage space in the concrete basement of the coalition building. There was also the hex-engineer workshop and the storage room that stored ready-built converters.

The man brought one of them out and showed the party the different functions of the device and how it worked. Mina and Fin were bored, Seth was slightly interested. It was mostly the great sorceress that listened attentively to the explanations.

Louis was the kind of man who ignored the audience's reaction when he explained something. He just kept talking and talking and lost himself in explaining everything. When he finally stopped even the lich was happy that he stopped.

They set a date for the installation and left in a hurry.