Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"We should stop this quest. There is something wrong with those worms." "I'm trying," she answered with a sigh. "I have no evidence, but I have a gut feeling that- Wait, what?"

"I already got the report that something is wrong. My people know more about these beasts than you. If even you can guess that something is wrong, they can do so too." she answered tensely.

"However, I can't stop this now."

"What do you mean? Didn't you get full authority over Delta after the evaluation?"

"Officially, yes. It doesn't mean I can do whatever I feel like. You met my brothers, right?"

Seth nodded. He had a vague memory of the losers of the evaluation.

"I don't know how, but one of the managed to get the news that there may be a colony of dungeon worms here and reported it to father and the court."

"And why does that mean that you can't stop this?"

"This quest came directly from the empire, not from me. I cannot force people to do the quest, but I also can't cancel it on my own, even if there are anomalies. They want this place mapped out, no matter what.

If this plan fails, the quest will be published to the public and any stupid fool will be able to throw their life away. I already did my best to restrict the participants to people with the highest survival chance. For some reason, I felt you had the best chance to finish a map. The quicker the map is finished, the quicker this will be solved."

Seth just stared at her silently for a while, exploring how he felt about this turn of events. It would end as long as they finished mapping? Before making a decision, he had to follow his suspicion.

"There is something you didn't tell us about the worms, right? A reason why they would go this far just to have their territory mapped out. Why are they so eager for these worms?"

Leana's face in the orb looked a little conflicted.

"Are you alone? What I am about to tell you is confidential." "Wait a moment." Seth brought out a ring from his inventory. It was not something he made, because it was one of the many special items that could be dropped in dungeons. Upon equipping and turning it by 90°, it created a soundproof bubble around the wearer. Similar to the robe that could hide one's identity, these were very popular drops from high-level dungeons.

"Okay, you can speak now."

She nodded and continued.

"Dungeon Worms don't just tunnel to build a nest. They feed on ores and systematically consume all metals and precious materials they can find. Their shells are made up of a unique metal composite, their eggs are a unique crystal, but most importantly... As they age, they refine a special crystalline ore in their heart, that is relic-rated and can be refined to a legendary ingredient by a master alchemist." Seth's heart had been beating stronger and faster as he listened to her but dropped in disappointment when he heard that the final reason was an ingredient for alchemy, not items. Of course, a legendary ingredient was always something massive, as was proven by Chrona's actions.

But he was a blacksmith, a goldsmith, an enchanter, and a bard, but not an alchemist. Alison had shown great talent in alchemy, but she had not even entered the craftsman-tier, yet. This kind of material was wasted on her.

His thoughts straightened after getting over the fact, that he would not get his hand on another legendary material. What Leana said explained why Chrona was to eager to get their hands on the dungeon worms. Delta's safety was only secondary.

"Say, after the tunnels are mapped out, what will happen?" "Chrona will send shock troops to take out the worms as quickly and effectively as possible." "Hmm, alright, let's make a deal. You will explain this to the others and give them an easy way out. I have a way to safely and quickly explore the nest. In exchange, I want part of their hides after your troops took them out."

With "a way out" he meant that she should offer them compensation to give up on the quest. If anyone decided to stay and risk their life afterward, it was not Seth's problem. Leana also thought this was a good solution.

"But how are you so sure you will be able to do it alone?"

Seth deliberated for a moment, but since the princess had shown him trust and told him a secret, he decided to reciprocate the gesture.

"Since you told me a secret, I will also let you in on one. I have a legendary item that grants me safe travels. I and my team have not encountered even one monster on the trip today."

"You have a legendary item?!" she exclaimed in shock, quickly suppressing her voice. He only nodded. He wasn't going to correct her and say that he had more than one. Suddenly, her face came really close to the orb, and stared him straight in the face.

"Listen here, don't let anyone know about this. Only people you trust. If it gets out that there are legendary items on Urth..." she whispered but halted.

Seth stared at her in surprise. "Yes?" he asked after she stayed silent for a moment,

"Shit, let's just say a whole bunch of people will start coming here to try and take it away from you. Currently, Urth is unattractive to smaller forces, but it will get really annoying if the flies start flogging to Urth, or Delta. Make sure this doesn't get out before you reach $%&"746. Ack, damn. Just don't tell anyone until you are at a higher level."

Seeing the genuine concern in her eyes, Seth only nodded seriously. He had not intended to publish his items to anyone but the gods anyways. Hearing her intense warning, the blacksmith decided to make extra sure word didn't get out.

It wouldn't be fun if he was overrun by people who wanted to steal the stuff, he originally made to ensure their survival. Whatever Leana tried to say, it was probably about being strong enough to confidently face anyone trying to take his stuff.

They didn't talk for much longer after coming to an agreement. Seth was about to say farewell when he suddenly felt a weird vibration in the ground. <Perfect pitch> caught onto a quiet grinding noise.

"..Say, these worms don't hunt at night, do they?"

"No?"

A massive shock rocked the camp and a pale blue light flickered across the night sky. The orb still in hand, he ran out of his tent, just in time to see the barrier of the camp react. A blue sphere covering the camp was glowing dimly in the night. Something had crashed into it.

He didn't get the chance to riddle what for long. Outside the barrier surfaced a terrible beast from the earth. Longer than Puffles and with a diameter of 5 meters even girthier than the Ivicer, it was a dungeon worm covered in sword-like bristles.

Blood was flowing from a quickly closing laceration above its mouth filled with crooked teeth. The angry beast bashed against the glowing barrier with a might that shook the whole camp. Other teams and guards also rushed out of their tents to stare at the beast attacking the camp.

Every clash made their hearts beat faster, but the barrier held. Gaining confidence in their defense, the inevitable happened.

"Let's go!"

A battle cry echoed through the knight and several parties started attacking the beast. Seth was unable to clearly see it's level with his <Observation>, which meant it was probably above lv.90. Thirsting the experience, several teams jumped into the fray, to attack the giant worm.

The members of the Oathguard, clad in full armor, came running over.

"Tower Master!" Ortega called out to him, leading his team members.

"What are you doing?"

"Are we not going, too?" Ortega asked surprised.

"Do you think we can gain much with this many high-level people hacking a single mob to bits? We should use this to get an idea about the strength of a dungeon worm."

Ortega halted when he heard what Seth said. He was right. It was different if they could monopolize one beast, but if the whole camp jumped at them... They gained more if they just watched on. It was not just them. Especially the people who looked a little worse for wear after returning, showed no signs to jump into the fight.

It became obvious as the fight went on for a while. Although they were all from different guilds, they managed to form a loose cooperation, not getting into each other's ways. The tanks hindered the movements of the creatures, while the others attacked.

The sword-like bristles blocked normal attacks and the hide was like metal, only taking small damage. In exchange, quite a few were hurt and impaled by the bristles shooting at them. Quickly they turned to attack from afar, from behind the tanks wearing heavy armor.

In loosely organized ranks, they started their raid on the beast.