Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth vanished from the control room, leaving a confused Evee behind. He appeared in a spacious bedroom. The air was slightly scented with the smell of herbs. Just a touch to test the softness of the bed weakened his knees.

As if all his bones liquified he slid onto the bed and fell asleep. There was no fighting the fatigue. When he woke up, it was as if no time had gone by. But there was no fatigue, and he was wide awake. Had he really slept? He didn\'t feel like he slept...

~ Hey, you finally awake? You slept like a log. ~ the lich teased him.

So he had slept... He stood up and started exploring his private quarters. There was a cupboard full of robes fit for a tall magician. At one point they might have been powerful items but over a long time of negligence, they had lost all their effects. Now it was just fancy fabric.

When he stepped out of the room, he came face to face with a giant vault door. A very interesting-looking, very big vault door. It also looked very safe.

"Errm, tower?"

"Yes, master?"

"Say, what is behind this door?"

"That is your treasury, Master. Would you like to survey your vault?"

Seth\'s eyes lit up. The tower came with a treasure. Great!

"Yes, let\'s take a look inside."

The vault door opened and the treasury inside was- almost empty. What did he expect? His disappointment was short-lived. The golden bars and statues within the almost empty vault were epic arcane gold.

It was his first epic material! If he melted down everything in the vault, he would definitely get about 30 bars worth of arcane gold. This was worth to be stored in such a vault. And he didn\'t have to share it with anyone.

This was when he remembered that Evee was still alone somewhere in the tower.

"Tower, can you port me to my companion?"

"Affirmative."

In the blink of an eye, he stood before Evee who let out a shrill shriek when he suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She had been worried and anxious and was tired after waiting for several hours.

"Ah, sorry for letting you wait." he apologized

"I-it is okay. At least I can rest now," she said with her eyes almost falling shut.

"Tower, do we have guest rooms? Could you port us there?"

"Affirmative" with that the young girl and blacksmith disappeared from the control room and appeared in a comfy bedroom. The witch looked around in surprise and slightly blushed when she realized that they stood in a bedroom.

"Oh! Errm... have a good night. Tower get me back to the control room!" he said in a hurry when he realized her misunderstanding.

"Affirmative."

Teleportation was very handy; it was a shame that teleportation would not work outside of the tower. It was his first question after Evee was gone. He could not use the tower\'s function to simply teleport the rest of the caravan from the formation to the tower. At least the long maintenance tunnels made sense now.

He had slept for maybe six hours. It was not long and also not short. It would still take a while for the rest of the caravan to arrive. Enough time to explore the tower on his own. Using the tower\'s mini-map, he could teleport wherever he wanted.

"Wait, if I can teleport wherever I want to go why does the tower have an elevator?"

It could have been a substitute for teleportation in case there was not enough mana for that function. But it was enough for Seth to check the elevator. And he was right. The elevator had one floor more than what was shown in the mini-map. It was labeled with 1 in a different number system.

Seth pressed it and could see his own position moving up in the tower\'s map. The highest floor of the tower was the private quarters and then came a lot of stone and earth after he left the mini-map.

After ten minutes of watching rough stone walls fly by, he became bored. It took another twenty minutes before the elevator came to halt in a small chamber with classy wood paneling. The bars of the elevator opened, and the wood paneling swung open like a door.

What came into view looked like the lobby of a high-class hotel or a luxurious apartment building. He stepped away from the elevator and the door closed behind him. Seth was impressed by the modern design of the lobby, and he saw a busy city outside the wide glass doors.

"Hey, did you just come out of that elevator?" he was suddenly asked as he was still looking around the room. His eyes widened. On the great stairs up stood something he had not seen in a long time. Not since the world had fallen.

The woman that spoke to him was a typical cybergoth with pale skin, black makeup, and dark green hair. She wore revealing black clothes and wide black pants with neon accents. Seth could only stare at her since all her clothes were uncommon and rare rated, despite their modern design.

The woman took this as affirmation.

"Hahaha! Oh my god! Serves them right! Now they will never have the tower!" she said, laughing with schadenfreude.

"Excuse me, what is going on?" Seth asked confused. He was sure that this was Delta. His <Map> told him so. But everything seemed so normal, there was even a cybergoth here. It felt like he had just taken an elevator from a fantasy novel to reality.

"Don\'t worry about it. Follow me, I will get someone to explain everything."

Seth shrugged his shoulders and followed her. It would take some time for Evee to wake up and for the others to arrive. He could use some distraction until the others came. He followed the cybergoth happily dancing along the stairs and corridors.

"Wait here. I assemble some people and then we can explain it all!"

The room had a floor of polished white marble and antique wood paneling. In the middle of the room stood a great piano. He took a closer look while waiting to meet whoever these people were. He had never learned to play piano, but who could withstand the urge to play around a little?

The was a brass plaquette on the piano that reads "To my dear friend Tom Willis. ~Mac." and a date. Judging by the plaquette this piano was over 200 years old. Someone had taken great care of it as it looked brand new.

"I see you are appreciating one of our oh so precious collector\'s pieces. A remnant of our ancestors. Come, some people have already arrived. The rest will trickle in as we wait."

The woman brought him into a great meeting room, with an old circular table. Some people were seated around it.

"This is your seat."

There was a high seat at the head of the table, and she pointed at it before standing to the side and leaning on the wall. Seth pursed his lips but followed her directions. He sat at the high seat and looked around the table.

~Be careful. All these people are above lv. 60. Even that weird girl. ~

There were 10 other seats, with six being filled already. All of them wore more or less formal or business apparel and looked more than just unhappy. Their outfits were all rare rated and fit for magicians. It seemed that Delta did not lack a good tailor

Seth in his armor seemed a little out of place, but he rather stayed fully geared up.

Another two people came in the next ten minutes and after about half an hour appeared the person everyone in the room had been waiting for. A tall, pale man with long blond hair and handsome feature walked in through the door.

~ Stay vigilant. That guy is a vampire over level 70! ~

"I\'m sorry for being late. Is this him? The new heir?" he said and pointed at Seth. The next moment he felt as if being observed by appraisal, but the handsome man made a stupid face.

"All right, then. Keep your secrets," he said with a smile.

~I blocked his appraisal for you. ~

The vampire took his seat opposite Seth.

"Lyddie, would you join us at the table? This concerns you, too."

"No, I\'m good over here." the cybergoth girl said and stayed leaning against the wall.

"Do as you wish. Since everyone is here and our new friend is probably quite confused by everything right now.. Let\'s begin the acknowledgment of the new heir. "