Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

<Ding! You have unlocked new class skills! Please check your skill window.>

<Ding! You have unlocked new blueprints! Please check your crafting menu.>

Seth heard the notifications in surprise. It had been a while since he had unlocked a class skill. He couldn't pay attention to the quest reward or the unlocks, as he was still singing. The golems and the elemental were still occupied with killing birds.

His experience bar kept filling and he couldn't let this chance slip for now. Only when the golems finally finished, could he lower the lyre and pay attention to something else. Checking his status he found his experience bar had already filled up by roughly a quarter again.

Taking a look at the skill window, he quickly found the new skill. It was called <Permit of Hades> and felt like the first skill that fit someone called the champion of Hades.

<Active Skill: Permit of Hades lv. 1, No Cost, Cooldown: 24h

Call upon the souls of the deceased. With the permission of the god of the Underworld you can summon a soul from the Isles of the Blessed and gain its power for a short amount of time

>

Judging by the description this could be a hit or miss skill, but gaining the skills of a deceased hero could be very powerful even if it was for just a short amount of time.

The blueprints he unlocked finally belonged to some of the Olympian series. Mostly lesser-known works of Hephaestus and enchantments associated with them, such as the Axe of Polytechnus or the Robe and Necklace of Harmonia.

In the meantime, the golems had collected all the bird corpses so he could put them into his inventory. <Soul capture> had also done its work and his soul counters for common small and medium souls had risen by 130 and 55 respectively. With almost 50% the drop rate had risen a lot with the skill level.

All that was left in the dungeon was to collect his reward from the chest.

Seth kicked open the wooden chest with golden fitting and was greeted by a pile of gold. There was also an unadorned necklace with a very high durability and an epic circlet. The necklace was something fit for enchantment by an enchanter.

It was called the Quarter Circlet and was a good item for magicians. The name came from the effects. It improved mana by 25%, mana regeneration by 25%, Chant reduction by 25%, and Magic Damage by 25%. It was not bad at all.

With his reward collected, he was done, technically. Despite how abhorrent he found this place and its beasts, Seth did not directly leave through the return portal. The recorder golems had found something else in while he was fighting.

The dungeon boss and the core.

He was not just going to rob the core. Seth was seriously thinking of closing this dungeon for good, this time. Although these kinds of high-level dungeons were not common, this one was just too vicious.

Pitting a party of adventurers against several hundred beasts at once and keeping them locked up until the condition was fulfilled? This dungeon was just a deathtrap. If he left this dungeon here, travelers could wander in and lose their lives. Even if they put up warning signs, he doubted people would stay away.

Although death in a dungeon was not permanent for an adventurer, this was just unfair. Losing experience and equipment this way was frustrating. Adding to that, that one would wake up at the closest adventurer guild, which was either Delta or Ypsilon.

Having stored the dungeon reward and the bird carcasses, he got on Puffles's back and they flew in the direction of the unwitting dungeon core.

"Please wait! Why are you coming this way?" a giant crocodile, at least three times bigger and with a stone-like armor, surfaced when they closed in on the dungeon core. It must be the dungeon boss, why were they so talkative lately?

"I was thinking of closing this dungeon for good!" Seth exclaimed honestly.

"But! But you already finished the quest and got the reward. I even put most of my units into that reward! Why do you want to close my dungeon?" it wailed heartbreakingly.

"What is going on?" Seth thought confused.

"Just what did I do wrong to deserve this? First those stupid birds and now you. How am I supposed to manage a dungeon under these conditions!" it lamented.

It was the first time Seth witnessed true crocodile tears. Literally, not metaphorically. Streams of tears were running from the wining crocodile's eyes.

~Pathetic.~ Puffles commented.

The blacksmith could awkwardly stare at the menacing crocodile, that was throwing a depressed tantrum. Despite having ample experience with small fairies throwing a tantrum, he was clueless about how to react to a giant crocodile doing so...

The beast seemed quite clear about the fact, that it had no way of stopping him if he was determined. But...

Just attacking it felt kind of wrong. Seth had no mercy for his enemies but this left him dumbfounded. Still, he noticed one thing. It had complained about the birds. Had there been a problem with them?

"Okay, okay. How about you explain what happened? We can talk it over." he tried pacifying the crocodile.

Once he got the dungeon master to a point that it could be talked to, it explained its situation to him under tears. It was not like the bird quest was the usual modus operandi of the dungeon.

"I got them in an unlucky gacha and they just wouldn't listen to me! Then they kept multiplying by praying on the other dungeon beasts. I'm never going to play gachas again!" it cried to him.

Seth didn't fully know how dungeons worked, but it seemed that the birds had aced as a kind of parasite to the dungeon. In the end, only the beasts with strong armor or those who kept multiplying quickly were able to survive.

Unable to use any of its resources, it couldn't help but use the dungeon quest and try to get rid of them.

"So... You will not pull this kind of move from now on?" Seth asked suspiciously squinting at it.

"No, no I won't! Poisonous insects, disgusting beasts, but not a giant flock of birds! I promise!" the crocodile assured him.

The blacksmith wasn't sure whether this was better, but in the end, people would enter at their own risk and could get information beforehand.

"Okay, I will not close the dungeon under these circumstances, but are you sure you have given me everything you could?" he just asked again, in case the crocodile was not robbed clean, yet.

"I really have nothing left, please have mercy!" the giant beast turned on its back and showed its soft belly, like a dog, to show its complete submission.

"Fine, fine. Don't make this embarrassing. Open a portal for me to leave."

"Immediately!" it said eagerly and a rift opened beside Seth.

The blacksmith threw a last look at the crocodile. Killing it wouldn't be enough for the last level up, leaving it in charge of the dungeon, for now, was the better option.

Seth returned to the cold mountains, where everyone was waiting. After leaving the almost tropical swamps, the cold was quite refreshing. He pondered what would happen to those wamp beasts if the dungeon ever broke out.

Could those things survive in a harsh mountain climate?

"You seem satisfied with our find," Tearlach spoke to him.

I was true, Seth couldn't help but feel good for now. This was one more dungeon they could add to the trade route and he was almost finished with leveling up. Hopefully, the next level of the <Spirit Smithy> was really the Golem Forge that Ceres described.

Returning to the camp, he was met with mixed emotions.

"Don't worry, we will camp here until everyone is rested before we continued," he assured them, which lightened the mood.

In the end, he had only stayed for a few hours in the dungeon and everyone was a little worried that they would set off, just after setting up camp.

The expedition rest for a good while before everyone got back on their mounts and they continued on their way to the mountain city.