Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Only silence answered until a quiet buzzing broke it.

"Seth?" Monique's voice asked through the communication orb.

"What's up?"

"The wave of monsters suddenly stopped. Is this a new trap?" she asked nervously.

"No! He was just dismayed because we just defeated his big toy!" Fin joined the call.

"Since you mentioned it. I'm sure I can do something better with that," The blacksmith mumbled and walked up to the colossus.

"Hey! Wait! Stop, don't touch it!" the voice of the toad suddenly echoed.

"Haha, too late," with a wave of his hand he swiped the corpse of the colossus.

"Yeah, too late. How about you send some more of those walkers? It was fun to punch them," Fin boasted.

"You-You- Heinous Villains!" the maestro screamed before falling silent again.

Seth looked a little perplexed. The maestro sounded really squeamish. Weren't they supposed to be very frightening and powerful demons? When did they become so strong as to bully such a scheming villain? Was it okay to bully a scheming villain? ...it probably was.

"What will you do? Send more materials up?" Seth asked excitedly.

"I have a better idea. If you are so confident in visiting the lower levels, I will just tell you where to find the entrances. Why should I waste my research subjects, if you are destined to die anyway?", the voice suddenly answered, the voice oozing with bad intent.

The blacks toad appeared again from a crack not too far away from them and spat out a scroll at their feet. It was almost as dark as the toad, and covered in mucus, but it was evidently a scroll of black hide, on it was a map of the canyon drawn in bright red ink.

The moment Seth opened the scroll, the bright red drawings turned into a three-dimensional hologram, showing the caves and dungeons that led into the cave system below the canyon, or as the guild called it "the abyss".

"Wasn't this what you wanted? Now go away!"

"Ha! Who's the heinous villain now? You were eavesdropping on us," Seth tried to provoke him, but nothing happen. What happened to the demon, suddenly not justifying his name of being (a) Payne Indias?

"Fine, Monique, we are leaving. Let's gather up." the blacksmith finally spoke into the communication orb.

If the demon was going to hole up, there was no luring him out anymore. If the maestro didn't play along with them, he might run as the Hive did. He also added Lydia to the call.

"We will pay a visit to the dragon newt territory next."

Seth still held a grudge against them for the Naga dungeon, and he wanted to get some bodies for some of his own experiments. Dragon Newt Golems sounded promising. Dragon Newt Armors also sounded interesting.

…

In his laboratory, the demon had already closed off all entrances to his domain. He was rubbing his hands as he brought out a thing that looked like a dead, rolled-up bug.

"Go and tell him, that the people he was looking for have returned."

After whispering to it, the device unfolded its legs like a real bug and jumped off the demon's bony hand to scuttle off through some crevice on the floor. It was actually a communication device to send a message.

"Let's whether you will even make it to the abyss," Payne mumbled as he watched the groups from Minas Mar leave his test site.

…

Since it had not actually been that long since they set off, they had more than enough time to pay a visit to the Dragon Newt neighbors. They bordered with the Maestro's test site. With the Maestro being deterred, they just had to get through his territory before the antidote lost its effects.

This problem was easily solved. The others simply entered Legion, while Seth sprinted ahead alone. It barely took him 30 minutes to charge straight through the demon's place and into the territory of the scaly scum.

To his surprise, the land occupied by the descendants of dragons looked the most like normal land. Trees were swaying, grass was growing high. It looked almost idyllic. There were even fields with small huts. What the heck was their business, living a quaint life when they came as conquerors?

As peaceful as it looked from afar, the moment they saw a human appear on the horizon, the mobs came running to attack. Seth's answer was summoning the others. Suddenly the 30 or 40 dragon newts ranging from level 80 to 90 faced the three field teams. The skirmish could hardly be called a fight.

The tick-skinned attackers quickly became leather and materials and wandered into Seth's inventory. Their souls also were not spared. At least the ones that dropped, he wasn't going to take the experience away from his friends.

"We will split up here and take a dungeon each, deal?" Seth suggested.

Now that they had the demon's hologram map, they could also use it to find the rough locations of the dungeons the dragon newts had taken over. All of them were originally theirs and formed the border between the hive and the dragon newts.

The moment Seth and Yulecat's Fur entered the dungeon they chose, the blacksmith noticed the theme. Like what the Naga Dungeon had turned into, this was a volcanic cave with basalt walls and lava pools everywhere. The entrance was warm, but it became excruciatingly hot deeper in, making it hard to breathe.

While the blacksmith had immunity to fire damage and felt rather comfortable as a Kin of Fire, the others had a harder time coping with the change in the environment. They were sweating profusely and were short of breath. It was finally Bulko's time to shine in a way that even surprised Seth a little.

When they entered the hot caverns, the Priest had suddenly equipped one of the relic-rated sets of elemental resistance Seth had made to test around. They had become relics after he tested around with enchanting them.

When Bulko had heard about them, he had asked Seth whether he could have them. At the time the blacksmith had thought of giving them to the Faer or making golems with them. Although he didn't know at the time what the priest needed them for, it now became clear.

<Ding! Mirror Priest Bulko is sharing his stats with you. You are immune to Fire. The buff can't be displayed.>

As a mirror priest, Bulko could share his stats with the party in the shape of support skills. Seth had not thought of this back then, but with the different sets of resistance, Bulko would be able to offset any kind of environmental debuff his party might receive in a dungeon or landscape.

"How much resistance does your skill carry over?" Seth asked Bulko intrigued, while the party thanked the priest for the buff.

"I can grant 45% of my own resistance to the others. The fire armor's effects bring my basic Fire Resistance up to 65%, so the whole party will have roughly 30% resistance to fire damage," the priest explained readily.

He was rightfully proud of his idea and being able to contribute to this kind of party. The bard could imagine that Bulko may have felt a little left out. He had not gained a blessing, nor was he chosen. Even when it came to legendary Items, Seth had given him a helmet whose use was still not completely clear. All the while he had to look at the others flaunting their items and blessings.

Being able to increase the party's basic resistance by 30% with a single skill was noteworthy, to say the least. He could see that the part-giant was excited to be able to contribute in a significant way.

"Great work, let's go and test it," he patted Bulko on the shoulder and they proceeded deeper into the dungeon.

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