Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth himself was unsure about using these weapons. They seemed lifeless but holding them gave him a disconcerting feeling. Add to that, that he could not appraise them, and it made them technically unusable.

He didn't want to expose anyone close to him to potential dangers. Seeing how eager the princess was to take a look... Seth did not feel apprehensive in giving her a chance. Maybe she had a way to find the effects.

"Sure. Here," he said and handed Leana the sword made from the angel's arm.

The princess was surprised at how easily he lent it to her but was quickly distracted by the item itself. Unlike a normal weapon, the sword was forged from one continuous piece of metal, the angel's arm.

The long broad blade made from the arm still looked rather normal, although big. The macabre part was the handle, forged from the creature's hand. The crooked crossguard could still be identified as a thumb and pinky while the handle itself were middle, ring, and pointer finger twisted like a rope. At the pommel, the nails of these three fingers held a peculiar bead.

"What is this pommel? I have never seen such a material?" Leana mumbled.

Everyone else also looked over her shoulders to get a look at the item. It was the first time he had taken them out after making them and even though back then many had watched him forge, few had gotten a good look at what he had actually done.

"Oh, that? It's one of the eyes." Seth commented matter of factly. The eyes of the angels had been purple marbles made of an unknown metal. In that situation, they seemed quite fitting for the pommel of the sword and the tip of the staff.

Shocked the princess pulled her hand away from the pommel she had just been fondling.

"I can't appraise it either. W-Would you mind if I took this to the empire and had our royal appraiser take a look at the item?" she asked carefully.

Although she really had no bad intentions, if the other party did not trust her, they might think she was not going to return it. Leana was unsure what Seth thought about her.

"Go ahead," Seth said without a care.

Her worries were unfounded. The blacksmith was not attached to these weapons. Testing them himself or giving them to others for use was out of the question. If the empire kept it, he just lost something he did not care too much about.

If the empire succeeded and she gave the item back, then Seth had a safe way to test their effects. From his perspective, he really had nothing to lose and all to gain.

Thankful, the princess put the sword into her own inventory.

The day grew long and the night dark when their merry get-together finally dispersed and Seth was alone with his people. A soundproof barrier was erected, and they could finally talk about business.

They reported about the actions of Minas Mar and the resulting growth. Seth listened approvingly as they described Monique's moves as the temporary tower master. He was really glad that they had managed not to burn everything down the moment he was gone.

In his mind he praised himself. This was the advantage to build an organization by delegating others. Even if he was not there, everyone was able to do their job.

When they finally got tired from talking, they decided to split and get some good sleep. It had been a long day for everyone. Just when they were about to stand up a sad voice could be heard.

~ Mom! What about me?! I also wanted roasted meat! ~

The Imugi was really sad at this moment. Mom had reunited with his very important friends, and it was understood that it could not just come out in front of all the people there. That was why it waited. When the strangers were gone, and they talked more privately it thought that its moment came!

It listened and waited. They merrily talked about what happened and ate roasted meat. It looked so delicious! But it held back and waited for its cue.

But it never came. They just ate all the meat without it! They talked and laughed without it! When they were about to leave it could no longer hold back!

~ Why am I being excluded! ~ it cried out.

"Who's that?" Fin asked curiously.

Seth had left out everything about the Imugi when he talked about the swamp adventure. He wanted to come back to it later, but he somehow forgot.

"I'm sorry." he had no excuse and summoned the chubby snakelet. Its big round eyes glittered with held-back tears.

"This is... I didn't come up with a good name yet. It's an imugi I adopted in the swamp."

Everyone knew what an imugi was, but only Fin's eyes glittered! She immediately stuck to the little pseudo-dragon and hugged it. Well, she technically laid on its head. The Imugi did not resist and calmed at the sudden sign of affection.

"Aww, it's so cute! Hello, little one! Fin is Fin! Call me Fin!" she said energetic.

The hyperactive fairy was at it again. Similar scenes had played when she met Pip and her friends. The fairy brute had a surprisingly soft side for children and hatchlings. It was just that she could never live it out with Puffles.

The Ivicer was just too high and mighty to accept being treated like a child. The Imugi and the children on the other hand starved for a loving person to coddle them and Fin was willing to cuddle and indulge them all day long.

Seth was glad it played out like this. Mostly because he was able to silently sneak away from the campfire, Mina in tow. They had...business to take care of. Important... business that had waited much too long.

While the couple was gone doing ...couple business, the rest of the party was left to babysit the baby imugi. Everyone was nice and even roasted some more meat for it, despite their obvious fatigue.

Th snakelet took a great liking to its mom's family. It's family. Although mom was maybe not the best mom, it decided that the family it had chosen was pretty good.

...

In the morning, Seth and Mina left their tent and it was clear that they had not slept for a single moment. Even the rest of the party, that had spent a long while babysitting the Imugi, had gotten a few hours of sleep.

Unfortunately, they could not stay in the tent all day, either. They had business to attend to. After giving their report yesterday, the leadership would decide on further actions to be taken. Mina was part of Leana's guard and Seth could not escape being involved in the matter.

He really tried.

Forced by the circumstances they washed up and got dressed in the morning. Mina and the others had to join the Princess. Seth on the other hand only had to join the meeting later when he was called.

The blacksmith found the Imugi, Fin, Pip, and the other children all huddled together leaning against Puffles. Seth could only imagine what kind of bonding they had gone through for this scene to happen.

Seeing them sleep like this, he decided not to wake them up and left to get something to eat from the field kitchen.

Here he found rows and rows of benches where people sat with their breakfast. He worried about Mina and the others, had they gotten something to eat before going to their job? Wait? Wasn't Fin also part of guard duty, why was she sleeping soundly with the bunch of children?

"Seth!" Duhu waved at him. The Tigerman sat together with Azul and surprisingly the mysterious archer

"Good morning! How are you?"

"Good! I have to say, the food of this field kitchen is a lot better than the stuff we had at the caravan." Azul answered happily.

It was true that the food at the caravan was not really good. Although they had quite a lot of chefs at the start of their journey, they seldomly had the time to set up something like a mobile kitchen. Half their journey they could not even use fire.

This meant, in her case, this was the first average food of her life. She was correspondingly euphoric.

"Haha, really? Then I will have to get some myself." Seth answered amused at the chimera's joy and went to get a plate of his own.

When Seth came back a few minutes later, his friends were baffled. He had somehow managed to obtain several servings and balanced them all on a single tray. Incredulous they watched Seth eat more than even the big Tigerman could stomach.

"You were right, it's definitely better than the stuff we cooked on the journey. Oh damn, I'm late. Let's talk again later." he said in a hurry. Someone informed him that it was time to join that meeting.