Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth returned to the quarters of the tower master, looking for his girlfriend.

“We are in the living room,” it came from inside

Entering the living room, he found Mina and Fin sitting on the ground playing games.

“Seth, you are finally back! Why don’t you join us for a game?” the little fairy asked eagerly.

“… Sure, why not.”

With a smile, the blacksmith joined the two, spending some leisure time. Lately, it had been happening more frequently and Seth was quite happy that his everyday life had found a better balance. Giving Mina the rings could wait for later.

It was also hilarious how hyped the fairy was about fighting games, despite being really bad at them. Even when Seth was demolishing her mercilessly, she was awed by the character’s moves and animations.

Mina on the other hand was frighteningly good at first-person shooters. The instincts of an assassin seemed to carry over well into the games, even if Mina had never touched a real sniper rifle. They took food from the kitchen and played until late in the night.

“Hey Mina, I have something for you.”

Seth spoke up after Fin finally left and the two got ready for bed.

“Oh? Did you plan something special for tonight?” she asked alluringly as she undressed.

“It’s a present… but there is no reason we can’t do both.”

“A present?”

Her ears stood up in excitement as she looked at him. Seth couldn’t help but chuckle at her shift in behavior. From a seductive vixen to an innocent girl looking forward to a surprise. The blacksmith took out the small black box he had prepared for the two legendary rings.

Mina’s face immediately flushed red when she saw the small box in his hands.

“W-wa-wa-wa~” she was summering, with her ears twitching and her eyes unfocused.

“W-What is this?” he finally got out some words.

“Hmm? Of course, your rings?” Seth answered truthfully. He knew how much she had looked forward to a legendary item and wanted to surprise her with two.

“O-our RINGS?! This is so quick. You should have asked first. But- ” she kept twitching around nervously. “I mean- Yes!” she shouted, with her face red like a tomato.

“What are you-“

Seth halted when he looked back and forth between Mina acting weird and the small box in his hand. He felt his face becoming hot as blood shot to his head, making it just as red as Mina’s. Seth’s thoughts were in shambled. Was this what happened? Did she really think? Would he? Should he have-? No, most importantly: She said yes!

He was frozen stiff as thoughts rand through his brain. Seeing him petrified with an awkward smile frozen between confusion and happiness, gave Mina the time to realize that something was not quite right.

She took the box from his stiff claws and looked inside finding two rings looking like they were forged from pure darkness. These were no wedding bands. And definitely not an engagement ring like she had seen in the media here in Delta.

Although it was hardly possible, Mina’s head turned even redder, turning a deep crimson. Oh no, she had misunderstood! The cat woman had unintentionally spearheaded their relationship into new territory. Did she shock him? Did it go too far? What if she pushed him away with this?

She quickly turned away with her ears pressed down in embarrassment. She just wanted to get out of this situation.

“I’m sorry! I will leave!” she announced and charged toward the exit door, oblivious to the fact that she was already half-naked.

However, she felt a big rough hand grasping her shoulder, for a split second the world turned into chaos and she found herself back on the bed. Towering above her was her boyfriend, pressing her onto the bed.

“No, no, no. No running. What happened to the self-confident vixen I fell in love with?” he whispered her in the ear. It made her skin crawl in excitement.

“There is no taking this back. You said yes.”

Her heart shuddered when she realized what he meant. She had completely forgotten about the two legendary rings. Something much better happened that night.

….

“And that is how Mina and I got engaged,” Seth announced to the assembled Lord of Minas Mar.

It was understated to say, that the first reaction was jaws falling to the table and shock before a shower of congratulations rained over the couple. The only person who seemed to be torn was Mike, Mina’s Brother

“Maybe you should take some notes from your sister~” Lydia teased Mike and whispered into his ear, which lead to the cat man furiously blushing. Whatever she told him, his mood seemed a lot better afterward.

“Do you already have a date?” Jane asked with her eyes shining in excitement,

“There was no plan and there are no plans, yet,” Seth said honestly.

“No need to rush or anything,” Mina said blushing, and leaned against him.

Although everything came as a surprise, Mina seemed really happy that things worked out, despite starting as a misunderstanding. Seeing her all smiley and satisfied also calmed Seth’s heart.

“Okay, Okay, can we get back to the original topic? The reason for the meeting?” Mary asked after an hour of gossiping.

Only then did people remember, that Seth technically hijacked the meeting for his sudden announcement. Everyone slowly calmed down and listened to Mary.

“Everyone good? Finally. Let’s start with a request from Princess Leana. It seems that the northern parts of Delta have been recently plagued by tremors and small earthquakes. It seems that scouts have found a bunch of unnatural holes in the mountains to the north.

All guilds were asked to send some teams to guard the exploration of these tunnels.”

“So Leana did not ask Minas Mar in particular?”

“Not Minas Mar, no. She asked if you could come by, Seth.”

“Me?” Seth asked confused.

Although Seth did not hate her, he had given Leana the cold shoulder since they returned from Sigma. He had not forgotten, that it was her who got his friends into danger. On a logical level, he understood her reasoning, but he wasn’t ready to let go of that grudge, yet.

“Somehow she found out you have a powerful mining skill? At least, that is the official reason mentioned in the request. Will you go?”

Seth couldn’t remember ever mentioning mining to Leana, but he also didn’t remember all their conversations. wasn’t really a skill he put much emphasis on hiding. It was possible he had mentioned it to her before. But maybe it was also about his golems?

He was thinking of an answer when he saw Mina looking at him. Her gaze obviously told him to go and make up with Leana. In the end, it had been them that decided to go into Sigma, even if Leana was the one pushing for it.

Kind of being able to read what Mina was worried about he finally agreed. Although there were less than two weeks until their expedition, the most important personnel that would accompany them already had at least one legendary item that would majorly improve their powers and help them stand out.

“Fine. Sorry, Lydia. You will have to wait for some longer for your personal legendary item.”

“What? Wait a minute? Why me in particular?” Lydia asked perturbed.

“I just started with the and I was going to make yours next. Evee, here’s yours.”

The blacksmith used the chance to push a small black box toward Evee. Inside was the Finger of Acheron. Everyone stared at the necklace the immortal witch unboxed. Even if they lacked appraisal skills, the unique aura of a legendary item was hard to ignore for people at a high level.

With a smug smile, Mina equipped her pair of rings and displayed them proudly for everyone to see. Some of them already had their legendary items, others had to deal with the weird angel equipment that may turn out to be legendary at some point. Everyone felt like these three made from seemed even more special.

“You, too? H-Hey maybe you could also.. err… not go? If you think about it carefully, shouldn’t your good friend be more important?” Lydia stammered jokingly. She already had the angel dagger, but it was hard to find out the use of something that was not yet recognized by the system.

Though, if Seth didn’t know better, he would have had the misconception that Lydia was salivating at the sight of the legendary jewelry.

“Don’t worry. I will make yours right after returning,” he said with a smile, shooting down all her hopes of getting it any earlier.

The rest of the meeting was smaller updates on the proceeding of the trade route. Although there were some problems at the frontier, things were proceeding smoothly when it came to the population of Tree Station One. On that note, Karina had also started working on expanding the other Tree Station, but without the massive accumulation she had before, they would grow much slower, than TS1.

However, this was no longer a problem, since the attacks had completely stopped for now after Wolfram blew up their headquarters. The past few days had been peaceful, until Leana’s Notice.