Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

After finishing up, Seth left his workshop. Seeing the two dwarfs still busy, he felt almost a little bad to be the first one to leave. Only almost. He was just thinking of grabbing a bite before returning to his quarters and maybe play some games when he saw a rare face.

It was Mike. Well, Mike wasn't hard to meet in general, but it was rare for the beastman to find his way into the workshops.

"Look who got lost. Mike! What's up?" he greeted the brother of his girlfriend.

"Seth, there you are! We have a guest that would like to meet you. He's waiting in the outer lobby."

The outer lobby? Seth halted for a moment, to remember what the outer lobby was. Right, it was the gatehouse where the Oathguard was currently stationed. They had jokingly called it the outer lobby, never expecting that it would be used for actual guests to wait.

"Who is it?" the blacksmith asked perplexed.

"It's an old man calling himself Master Mountain."

Seth looked even more shocked. He had a vague idea who that was. They had met an old man during their escape from the Theocracy and the forest. It felt like so long ago. Although he had given the man a ring, he never expected him to really come looking for them.

"I will go meet him."

Although he had never expected him, it was a pleasant surprise. After finding out about the Voracious Cloud Continent, he and Al made the connection that Master Mountain was probably also a resident of the invading cloud continent.

Alison's miraculous attribute motion was also based on the knowledge Master Mountains shared with them. And Seth's first legendary weapon could be attributed to him since he gave Seth the <Meteoric Iron>. There were more than enough reasons to be grateful to the old man.

But most importantly, he was a friendly connection with this invading world. Even with Al'Zalsar squeezing out all the information from the cultivator, it was better to have some friends on the other side.

The blacksmith went to wash up and changed his clothes before going to meet his visitor.

Of course, it was not just Seth's gratitude that made him act this way. With more information about the foreign world and their structure of power, it was more than likely that Master Mountains was an immortal or close to being one.

There was no need to offend someone like this by being insincere.

Outside the room was the mighty Minotaur standing guard at the door and Seth greeted Asterion in passing. Behind the door was the common space of the Oathguard. It was a good place with a warm atmosphere. His visitor sat in a comfortable lazy boy sipping a cup of tea someone had already brought him.

"Hello Master Mountain, we meet gain. Let me introduce myself again, I am Seth Smith, the tower master of Minas Mar, " he greeted with an amicable smile.

"It has been some time, young friend. Please, just call me Yu, since I have come with a somewhat shameless request today,"

Master Mountain, Yu, seemed quite lax, so Seth simply sat down in the lazy boy beside him

"A shameless request? How can I help you?"

Yu sighed.

"An old friend asked a troublesome task of me, I am looking for someone."

Seth had a hunch about who he was looking for.

"The man is an elder of the Northern Edge Sect. He came to this land looking for a chance to break through but they lost contact with him," Yu explained.

This fit with the information Al'Zalsar had pressed out of their prisoner. Was he really an important person? For Master Mountain, a man of unknown strength, to not just look for him, but also knock on the gates of Minas Mar. Could this really be a coincidence?

"He is a lad of considerable strength. If he really were to face a danger, the fight would leave scars on the landscape."

Seth couldn't help but see his remark as a subtle hint. Previously he had mentioned the floating peaks, he had deliberately called them peaks, not floating islands. The bard was relatively sure that Yu either knew or at least suspected that Minas Mar knew something or was directly involved.

"I might know of such a man, but his current condition might not be to your liking."

The blacksmith decided not to hide it for several reasons. First of all, these kinds of mind games where he didn't quite know his opponent were a pain in his ass. Another reason was that he was quite sure to be in the right and didn't judge Master Mountain as someone who wouldn't listen to reason.

Thirdly, he was only indirectly involved in this. It was Al'Zalsar's business. Even if Master Mountain was stronger than the Northern Edge Sect's Elder, so was the sorceress. He was confident in his ability to shove all the blame on her shoulders.

"What could have happened to him?"

Yu didn't seem too concerned when he asked this and Seth simply explained what had happened while he was out fighting abominations and necromancers.

"According to our associate Al'Zalsar, she found what she called a Qi Gathering formation, that was responsible for drastic climate changes in the area. With the lives of billions of citizens on the line, she confronted the perpetrator and was victorious..."

He spun a fantastic tale, painting the lascivious sorceress as a great heroine.

"Hmm, I think I get the picture. Is he still alive?"

"She broke his cultivation and I have no idea what else she did to him, but he is definitely still alive," the blacksmith assured.

Yu was visibly relieved, he didn't seem to mind that the man he was looking for, for his old friend, was beaten, crippled, and probably tortured.

"It's good enough that he is alive. Could you speak to this powerful fairy and ask her, if she could hand him over to me? It won't be for free, I promise."

"Won't there be any repercussion, if you return with him?" Seth asked a little worried.

"No need to worry. I don't intend to return him to his sect, so there won't be repercussions. My acquaintance will take care of the Northern Edge Sect."

Although what he said didn't quite sound hostile, it didn't seem like he and his old friend had any good relations with the Northern Edge Sect. There was no reason to refuse him if it was like his. Of course, Seth also thought of the possibility that Yu might be lying to him.

The blacksmith judged that the chance for a good relationship was worth the risk of getting on that sect's bad side. They were on their bad side, to begin with. Again, if something went really wrong, he could shove all the blame on Al and the sorceress would have to take care of it.

"Then I don't see any problem in convincing her to hand him over," Seth concluded.

"We can visit Al'Zalsar together tomorrow. If you don't mind, you can stay the night at Minas Mar."

"Then I will take this offer. Since you already promised to accompany me for a talk with this sorceress, I will share some information with you, that might come in handy in the future."

"Please, do tell,"

Seth was a little surprised but he wouldn't say no to free information.

"Your world is not as detached from the Voracious Cloud Continent anymore, as you might think. Despite having your own developed culture and source of power, you are unprepared for the advanced forces of the Jianghu. Some elements of the Black Faction have already grasped part of the underworld of the place you call Y-City. They use the natives to distribute a vicious drug among the populace."

It took the blacksmith a moment to make the connection. He was not too involved in what was going on in Delta, but Mina had told him about the growing number of incidents that involved a drug popular among players.

"Could you be talking about the Divine Strength Drug?" he asked when he remembered the name.

"Divine Strength? Hmm, I guess somebody could call it that, based on the early symptoms. However, its real name is the Blood Berserker Pellet. It is a malicious medicine. The medicine is highly addicting to the uninitiated and will slowly turn them into a Blood Berserker. Unless one knows the supplementary cultivation technique, they will just be slowly refined into ingredients for the pellet," the old man spoke with a heavy voice.

"Becoming ingredients...you can't mean..?"

Seth seemed to vaguely remember having heard of an incident that happened while he was away on his quest.

"Yes. This medicine is refined from people."