Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

When Seth arrived on the ground in the shaft, his knees gave way, and he simply sat down on the ground. That song had been way worse than the bard expected, based on the description. At some point, he had not played to overwhelm the enemy, but to keep his own life.

It was just supposed to block their magic and harm them a little. The outcome was simply way over the board. The bard had no idea how it came to that, but the piece had completely sucked all energy out of his body. Had he known how dangerous it actually was, he would have just relied on Hellion and Heads to do the rough work.

Slightly shaking, Seth drank a Universal Recovery potion, increasing recovery for mana, stamina, mental power, and health to a certain extent. It was weaker than a specialized potion, but it helped stop the shaking.

This song was officially added to the playlist of music that would not be played again. Especially since he had to do the last hit himself. However, he was not mad about having to deliver the last hit. There was an unexpected gain to the whole situation.

That weird elf had to be close to the threshold of a legend, to survive and protect his close allies from that terrifying black sun. Its strength was reflected in the change to the Ravenous Sog... and himself.

Seth usually avoided using the sword that drank blood and souls, for the simple fact that he had a vested interest in harvesting those souls himself. As such, he had not experienced the power of its second effect, to absorb blood and souls to strengthen the user, often. It also seemed like the condition to trigger it was that the victim had to be as strong or stronger than the wielder.

For the first time since he wielded the Ravenous Sog, the blacksmith experienced a significant gain. While the sword's magic capabilities rose, Seth actually gained a trait from slaying the near-legendary elf.

The trait "Radiant One" had two effects. The first was raising his Light-elemental damage by 50%. That was good, but the second effect was the real boon. The trait actually gave him the passive skill <Light Affinity> starting at level 3.

Affinity skills were not easy to come by, as the only natural way was to actually have a great affinity with an element. Seth himself had an affinity with fire; he was also granted the skill <Earth Affinity> through the blessing of Hades.

The difference of affinity could be easily seen by the fact that he had maxed out <Fire Affinity> to the point he became a Kin of Fire. <Earth Affinity>, on the other hand, had only risen by one level ever since he got it.

But even if he had no affinity with light, just having the skill was great as it raised his resistance and base damage in the element at the same time. Considering that <Light Affinity> started out at level 3, it raised both by 30%. Meaning the trait almost doubled the power of his light-based attacks and his resistance to them.

Since he started out with 35% resistance to light thanks to other traits, he now had 65% resistance to light damage, which rivaled his earth elemental resistance. Seth was never unhappy about a good power-up. It almost made up for the bad surprise of the song.

"Seth, are you okay?" Rayki asked as him Luf and the other Faer approached. Seems like he didn't have long with his own thoughts. The situation had to be dealt with. He looked at the group approaching and sighed.

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"I guess I'm better off than you guys," the demonic bard joked, looking at them.

Apart from Luf, they all wore rags that barely covered their bodies adequately, indicating that they had been absolutely wrecked at some point. At least they were alive. The same couldn't be said about the nightelves. Looking up, there was little that remained from their base, and there had been none in the realm of the Black Sun.

"So much for our potential business partners, huh?" Seth thought to himself, when Bodeka suddenly jumped at him, giving him a tight embrace, he was forced to reciprocate unless they both fell over.

"Thank you so much for saving us, boss!" the originally cool beauty cried out with tears in her eyes. Well, she did go through a near-death experience, he guessed. It was a shame he wore the heavy armor... but he was an engaged man, so maybe it was better that he did.

"Alright, alright, calm down. I only did what was natural. It's not like I can allow some randos to touch my people," he said, patting her on the back. As they were busy with the reunion and counting their limbs, Tatzel descended into the hole to give them all a lift out of it.

The faer happily joined the golems at the rim of the crater, but only Luf and Rayki stayed back to speak with Seth. "Will it really be okay?" Luf suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?" the blacksmith asked, but he had an inkling about what she meant.

"Those people were terrifyingly strong. What if we got involved in something we shouldn't have?" the faer asked. Luf was worried they had poked a dragon, making an enemy they should not have. A funny thought, considering they even intended to pick a big fight with Spatia and the Voracious Cloud Continent.

"I would say there is no massive need to worry," the blacksmith gave his opinion. In fact, he didn't quite mean it when he called these attackers some random hoodlums. He had an idea who they were.

Seth had recognized the figure of the elf. Although a high intelligence attribute did not necessarily raise one's wisdom or ingenuity, it gave one a great memory and quick judgment. The blacksmith still remembered the withered corpse he and Al found in the birthing pools of the cave world.

It would have been a tremendous coincidence for the same kind of race to attack demons on two completely different worlds. The bard also doubted that he, or rather Luf and the others, were that unlucky to suddenly face an ancient enemy of the Abyss.

The most rational explanation was that these guys were a faction actively at war with the Abyss Alliance. For it to happen in the short time when Luf and the others were present was unlucky, but this kind of attack probably happened all over the abyss all the time. At least he hoped so; the alternative was that they were incredibly unlucky. He shared his thoughts with Luf and Rayki.

"A group that is actively warring against a union of several demon worlds?" she mumbled. "But isn't that even more reason to worry?" she asked. Her judgment was sound. A powerful group that took up the fight against a huge alliance of demons was not to be underestimated. However-

"We have an idea about who they are, but they have no idea who we are. Not even a soul made it out of this place after I arrived. If anything, they will blame the demons," the tower master explained with a shrug.

The black sun had swallowed the enemy as sacrifices, and Seth had taken care of the remaining group himself. They just had to vanish from this place, and if they ever made contact again, make sure they were not seen as demon sympathizers.

"What about the nightelves?" Luf asked about their business partners that just suffered a terrible loss.

"Tough luck. I think we should block the hell gate once we left. It seemed like those guys tried to invade Urth, too," the blacksmith said with a shrug. Another trade partner was nice to have, but the desperate Perrican Empire would probably be enough to get them through the trick of it.

After all, the whole reason they looked for trade partners to acquire food was to gain time to rebuild their own granaries. Just restoring the subterranean facilities of Delta to 80% would be enough to support the current Minas Mar with basic food needs. Meanwhile, Y-City was also working on reclaiming some of theirs. They just had to weather that period.

"So my work here was for naught," Luf sighed.

"No need to be depressed. Tings can't always work out for us," the blacksmith cheered her up.

"Did they really have edible stuff?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, they had quite the array of fruits with peculiar tastes," Rayki answered with a smile.

"I actually still have a few in my inventory. Maybe Karina could grow them in Urth?" Luf suggested. Listening, Seth got curious about the food.

"Yes, we can ask her later. Let's go home now."