Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

“Leave the talking to me. I will get us in, “ Ray assured them as he stepped before the guards. However, there was not much talking at all! It was a quick exchange of a stack of silver coins that made the guard step aside, letting them enter through the city gates. Nobody asked for their names, they didn’t even try to look under the hoods of their travel coats.

“What was that? Mike whispered as they entered the lowest ring of the city. it reminded that cat man of the dock areas he had once seen at harbor cities. Wherever they looked were bars, taverns, cheap inns, and dodgy brothels. He regretted having such a good nose because this place reeked wretched.

“I have not been here before, but I have been to places like this. The best entry ticket was a stack of cash. These guys don’t really give a crap about who enters, or for what reason,” Ray explained quietly

They walked a while through the streets, crowded with people from all walks of life, most of them very evil and intimidating walks. It was hard for the Chosen of Maahes to fathom how people that were supposedly normal citizens, could generate such an intense aura of savagery in barely three years. Not all, but some of them felt like they lived as murderers for decades.

“Let’s find a calm place to talk about our next steps,” Ray whispered to the two, as he led them up a soft slope, to get further up the mountains side. Ray was aiming for the next inner wall that was slightly up on the hill.

After another sum of money changed owners, they passed through the first inner gate. The buildings here looked better, and the crowd was thinner. They found a tavern that was almost clean, and the people inside seemed half-decent. The three even dared to order drinks.

“We have to get information, first,” Ray whispered. “You don’t say,” Lydia commented sarcastically. They were all clear about the fact that they needed to collect information first. They needed to get a general overview of Morranto before they could decide where to look for information on slaves and possibly the whereabouts of the kidnapped woman.

“I think I already found a way to shorten this process,” Mike suddenly said, raising their hope that they wouldn’t have to spend time in the slimy taverns and reeking brothels of the lower city. While the two had bickered, he had kept listening to the conversations around them, silently.

“They have an adventurer guild here, we should be able to get basic information there. Those guys mentioned its in the “third ring”. If this is the second ring, I guess we have to get up one more.” the catman explained.

“Great, an Adventurer Guild,” Lydia praised, taking a big sip from her drink and grimacing at the taste.

…

“This is an adventurer guild...?” Lydia mumbled. Built into the remnants of an old ruin and topped with a shabby wooden roof, the place looked like absolute shit. The crumbling walls were stained from rust and exposed the steel reinforcement in many places. Some of them show clear signs, that someone tried to break the metal out of the wall at some point.

“Well, it says so on the sign...” Mike said, pointing at the sign that showed that this was supposed to be a branch of the Adventurer Guild. The sign was the only thing looking halfway presentable.

“Maybe we should just go in...?” Ray suggested awkwardly and pushed open the door. The room behind was filled with half-broken furniture. At the opposite side of the door was a small counter.

“Hiek!”

The moment they entered, they saw a figure quickly duck down behind the counter.

“J- Just take a token over there and swipe it across the orb if you want to register or leave your request on the table beside the door!” a girlish voice called out from behind the counter.

Carefully, the three stepped to the counter, looking at the girl, cowering there. She was a young woman, with an unkempt plait of hair. The disheveled and dirty uniform she wore identified her as a receptionist of the guild.

“P-please leave me alone! I have no money! You will get in trouble with the lord if you do anything to me!” she exclaimed with tears in her eyes. Hugging her knees and quivering, she did not dare to look at the three hooded visitors. Lydia couldn’t help but grasp her shoulder softly.

“We are not here to harm you. We just arrived in Morranto and heard there was an Adventurer Guild. All we wanted was to ask for some basic information on the place,“ she explained softly. Her friendly voice had the girl look at her in surprise.

“I-I will not be fooled by nice words, again... P-please leave, I can’t help you,“ she begged.

“But maybe we can help you? Just what happened here for a branch of the Adventurer Guild to be in this state? Where is the guild master?” Mike interjected. After he voiced his question, the girl started sobbing.

“Mike, you-” Lydia wanted to admonish him, but the girl started talking like a damn broke.

“T-The guild master and the others,“ she halted for a moment to snuffle. “They are all gone. They killed them! They slaughtered everyone right before my eyes, right here... And they will do the same to you if you try to help me!” she exclaimed tragically. Afterward, she wasn’t able to speak a coherent word for minutes, only crying and sobbing.

“Shit, they actually dared to kill a Guild Master?” Mike exclaimed, shocked. While they waited for the receptionist to calm down under Lydia’s care, Mike and Ray took a moment to take a closer look at the guild.

Somebody knew what they were doing. Although Mike had never worked at the guild, he knew the general setup of a guild branch. The basic load out of a branch was a crystal to register adventurers, a device to print the guild card, and appraisal devices to check someone\'s status.

Like the rest of the room, those things were either smashed or stolen. The only thing left was the device to register adventurers and a bunch of token amulets on the wall that could be used for temporary registration. It was clear someone had gotten rid of everything, except the Adventurer orb, which allowed for registration and resurrection in the guild, in case one died in the dungeons

When Mike put down the hood of his coat, there was suddenly a gasp and the pitiful sobbing waned. “Y-You are a beastman! Oh, has the dungeon god finally answered my prayers?” she asked with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

“Why is my race important?” Mike asked confused.

“Why? Because someone like you would never come here to join these assholes! They think of any non-humans from the Pathworks as nothing more than invaders and potential slaves! Y-You have to be strong if you dare to come this deep into this place... Then -Then I will tell you everything I know, just please take me along when you decide to flee!”

She had actually crawled over the counter and clung to Mike’s leg.

“Okay, okay, we will help you, but get off of him,” Lydia assured her and asked her resolutely to get away from her boyfriend. Seeing finally some hope and reason to trust them, the receptionist was able to calm down a little.

“What’s your name?” Lydia was finally able to ask her.

“I-I’m Holly, a junior receptionist at the guild,” and with that, they were finally able to have a conversation. Holly’s story was not the most complicated one, but tragic, nonetheless. She had come here with two other receptionists, the guild master, and a team of five A-rank adventurers.

The former Lord of Morranto, a businessman from Y-City had “generously” gifted this ruin to them. With gritting teeth, they accepted. Originally, they wanted to move once business picked up, but everything fell apart when the new Lord rose to power.

Morranto became more and more lawless and chaotic as the new lord cared for little more than his own amusement. Crime Lords ruled as they wished, and even slavery became a common thing since then. It was when the guild master spoke out against the practice of slavery...

“I can still hear the fighting and the screams The things they did to the others...“ she started sobbing again.

“This lord has quite the balls...” Mike commented, knowing how far the Adventurer Guild was willing to go to protect their own.

“E-Even though I don’t want to speak in his favor, it wasn’t actually the lord who ordered them. The only reason I didn’t suffer the same fate, was because his servants suddenly appeared and killed the attackers...” she mumbled.

“Of course, I know I’m only to separate and maintain the spawn point and resurrection, but there would have been no need to kill his subordinates, if this was planned by him,” she said. Her voice had become stronger, now that he had calmed down and saw a chance to get out. Maybe even more than just getting out.

“So the lord is not the one actually ruling this place, just the strongest fist... Can you tell us more about those Crime lords? We are actually looking for a woman She was kidnapped from a caravan, roughly a month ago.” Ray took the initiative and asked about their original business.

“You were looking for someone? Errm, if she was kidnapped, then you will have to look into Bartholo and Valentino. Rumors say that more than 90% of the slave trade in the Unclaimed Mountains goes through their channels. If there is any place in Morrento with info on your friend, it’s the place of either of the two,” she asserted after pondering for a moment.

“Their houses are up in the fifth ring, close to the manor of the city lord. It will be hard to sneak there...” she warned them

“Do you think this problem could be solved with money?” Ray asked.

“Money?” Holly echoed confused.