Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

After deciding to become a force to be reckoned with out of spite, the following points were of lesser urgency. Leana mentioned the lack of communication with Thres in recent weeks. Ever since Mike returned with the news of the body snatcher worms, the messages from Thres became scarce.

Minas Mar had kept up closer contact with the first outpost of the reformed Muir Empire after Mike and the others had created a connection during Mike's divine quest. After all, the plan was to offer the people of Beta to move there, once the satellite city of Beta was fit for habitation again.

however, the most recent messages mentioned the heightened activity of infected at the borders of Beta, but it had been radio silence for a couple of weeks. Since Minas Mar was focused on the tournament and their war preparations, they noticed Thres' silence later than they should have.

With Mike's push to take action against the worms and the plan to siphon the worms as weapons against Spatia, it became all the more important to reconnect with Thres and find out what was currently happening over there.

Seth was not too involved in the happenings of Thres and the Unclaimed mountains, but he knew that Tano'Mol was supposed to be in Thres at this time. thinking of the demon, he not only feared for his supply of souls, but he also suspected that Tano'Mol, as a well-connected soul trader, might have information on the Abyss.

"Can't Karina just send one of her incarnations? The sapling in Thres is still fine, right?" Evan suggested. As the one who had closest with Karina in recent times, this power of her was freshest on his mind.

"We also have a space mage and the system church. Why would I have to go?" the dryad argued back. Although she could send one, this was not instantaneous. Just like though needed to travel distance, this ability also had to travel for days through the roots of the trees, to reach so far away.

Using the space mage or connecting to Thres via the System Church was indeed quicker, however.

"We currently can't connect to the church in Thres. Although the priests of Minas Mar we trained can operate the connections between the Tree Stations with a church, it's a different story trying to connect to a different branch of the system Church," Simone paused his explanation for a moment and mused.

"To say it in your terminology, although we use the same technology, we don't know the Wifi password," the Santa impersonator joked with a small chuckle. With the church out of question, eyes turned to Idyllon Mo, the master enchanter and space wizard.

The man barely reacted to the attention. He didn't look too good. Judging by the dark rings under his eyes, Seth guessed that he hadn't gotten any sleep since the battle. His eyes only tracked over the room slowly when he noticed many looking at him.

"Idyllon is busy working on the artifact gate above our heads. He won't be able to shuttle people to a place this far away," Leana spoke up for her overworked subordinate. It seemed like trying to take control of a legendary artifact was a heavier burden on the man than Seth expected.

"What if we use the churches to get to Spring City and have Idyllon teleport us from there?" Mike suggested. This had been part of his previous route, although he didn't port to Thres but rode on one of the snakes of Senior White, together with a group of priestesses. Leana shook her head.

"We need Idyllon here," the princess insisted.

"Why don't you take my shuttle? The one i built last time? You can go to Spring City, or whatever, and fly from there to Thres," Al'Zalsar suggested a different solution. This seemed reasonable. The speed of the shuttle was quite high. it had only taken a couple day from Delta to Beta previously. If they started at TS7, it would only take hours.

After a little back and forth, Mike finally got his will. He would be the one that would return to Thres, together with Archer, Misto, and the group of named Golems. Eager to prove themselves, Bodeka had volunteered for her guild to follow the three instead of the golems but was denied.

Mike was concerned that they may be susceptible to the corruption of the body snatcher, as they had living flesh. Seth doubted that possibility, but Mike insisted that he preferred for the golems to come along.

"Well, I think that finished all the urgent points I wanted to talk about with everyone. With this, I thank everyone for their participation and-" Leana concluded the meeting, however, Seth raised his hand to stop her from ending the meeting.

"Seth?" she asked a little surprised that the blacksmith would stop her.

"There is still one more urgent thing, I would like to talk about with everyone." Leana nodded and left the rostrum, while the blacksmith solemnly entered and stepped up, the attention of the auditorium on him.

"As you all know, the recent battle was a fully planned out, yet very hard-fought-for victory. Some things went wrong, but most succeeded and I wanted to thank everyone for their efforts and good work;" the bard gave a short speech, thanking everyone for being part of Minas Mar.

"But you know me, I wouldn't delay the victory celebration just to thank you. Since everyone here is qualified to get a legendary item or two, I thought we would discuss the Loot and its distribution together. As a little prelude to the celebrations, so to say," he revealed his intentions with a smile.

He put up a table from his inventory and brought out the thing they had looted from the battlefield. Seth began bringing out the legendary items he was able to appraise first and kept the other back. Since Al and Idyllon were here too, it was great timing to have them give some insights.

"This one is called "Sokolov's Lightning Rod", " the blacksmith brought out a round silver rod made from <Ithildin> and covered in dark engravings. He proceeded to explain the effects to everyone in the room and-

"Dibs!" a pair of right arms shot in the air claiming priority on the item. The moment Seth mentioned the Lightning Affection, Azul, their resident Lightning mage, couldn't hold back. Seth still finished his explanation without giving her any attention.

"So, does anyone want to dispute Azul's claim? Any suggestion who would deserve it more?" the bard asked the room. It was only logical to give the lightning staff to their lightning mage, but she already had the Palpatating Spear, so Seth was open to suggestions.

If Azul started dual-wielding the staff and the spear with her four arms, it would definitely have a great synergy and increase her overall power further. Although it made sense to give it to the only lightning mage among the current field team members, there might have been a promising member among the Oathguard, so his eyes rested on Jack Felton.

Felton was in charge of training the elites of the Oathguard, so if there was someone better suited for the staff, Felton would know. But when nobody said anything and even the Instructor shook his head, Seth shrugged his shoulders.

"Then come forward and take your price," he announced holding up Sokolov's Lightning Rod for the chimera to receive it. Azul happily came forward and received her second legendary weapon. Once she got back to her seat, Seth brought out the next one.

""The Unbreakable Shield", its name is a little uninspired but it is a good shield and actually unbreakable, " Seth commented and explained the item. Apart from not breaking, the shield improved Endurance and the <Blocking> skill, a basic skill of most tanks.

Since the shield was nothing overly specific, there was more interest in it by the tanky players in the room, like Tekar, James, or Bement who already had a legendary shield but thought of getting another as backup.

Seth looked for Felton, to see whether there was someone in the Oathguard who seemed worthy to get it, however, all other options were silenced when a massive hand was hesitatingly raised. Bulko, the friendly quarter-giant raised his hand.

Although Bulko was one of the people he knew the longest in the room, the cleric only owned one potentially legendary item so far. he had given Bulko the Helmet of Chain, but it had not been registered by the system so far, Many of its options were still known.

Apart from the helmet, Bulko had chosen the sets of elemental armor Seth had once made to improve his understanding of armor sets. They allowed him to max out his powers as a Mirror Cleric.

Despite Bulko choosing it that way, Seth had always felt a little bad, that he couldn't shower the healer with legendary items like the other. This was why there was no hesitation to give it to Bulko when the shy giant finally decided to raise his hand.

"The come and get your legendary shield, Bulko," the blacksmith called his forth, the moment the hand was raised. When Seth saw the massive man approach, the blacksmith had another idea. In addition to the unbreakable shield, he also took out the Mace of Armor Destruction.

Seeing the Tower Master bring out a mace in addition to the shield, Bulko stopped a little confused.

"This is the "Mace of Armor Destruction". As the name suggests, it can shave away 25% of an armor's durability and lower its defense by the same amount on strike. I think it would go well together with the shield and your innate talents," Seth explained.

Not only was it not uncommon for a cleric to wield blunt melee weapons, but for Bulko who had incredible strength as a quarter-giant, it was simply the perfect choice.

"Thank you, Seth," Bulko said touched. he didn't try to refuse the item and took it solemnly in addition to his new shield.