Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"WHAT!? Did you meet him without us? That\'s unfair! You were away a whole day having fun, while we had to take over your duties!"

Seth could hear Fin\'s agitated voice blaring from the phone. It seemed like Mina also forgot a few things for their date.

"Looks like we will have to separate for now," he commented after Fin had a real go at her. She looked up at him with hanging ears.

"Yeah, I guess," she said sadly.

After getting dressed Seth left the hotel and returned to the Willis Building where he found a... scene.

"What is going on here?!"

What he came to was a standoff between Drosi and the 4 guardians he had brought and some members of the Willis Family led by Fattyhair. Everyone had several kinds of wounds and looked very tired. They were obviously too tired to keep fighting and had come to a standstill.

It took a while for them to even register that Seth was standing in the lobby, despite him having spoken up. Fattyhair who had a few long claw cuts on his clothes finally reacted to him.

"You? This is your fault! Who told you, you could bring in your little fur friends, huh? They came in here like beasts. Get them out of here!"

"Tijaahk were just waiting in front of the building. How dare you lie and belittle us?" a guardian spat out. Seth ignored the two and stepped to Drosi who seemed to suffer from severe mana depletion. It was similar to when he depleted his mental energy, if one used up their mana, they would feel weak, out of breath, and very tired.

There were also side effects from drinking too many potions if one was not careful. The cat was already quite old and had a hard time recovering from the effects.

"Drosi, how are you?"

"Oh, Seth, there you are. We\'ve been waiting." the elder pressed out.

"I\'m sorry that I\'m late. Come, I help you up. I\'m sure you will feel a lot better after getting some sleep in a good bed." he supported the cat elder and the guardians followed him unwillingly tower\'s the elevator-

"Where do you think you are going!? Don\'t use our ancestor\'s heritage like some boarding house for aliens!"

"Shut up. I will deal with you later."

The elevator doors shut before anyone could speak up again and they returned to Minas Mar. Seth really started to dislike the Willis Family. Maybe he should not make business deals with them. He didn\'t like it, but the weird Vampire Valen seemed like the only professional person up there.

"Boss! What happened? Where have you been?" Evee and Jonah were in the control room when Seth arrived.

"Evee, can I leave them to you?"

"Oh, sure! I actually saw medical facilities on the lower floor. Maybe you could send us there?"

In the blink of an eye, the cat people and Evee were gone from the control room.

"Boss, what\'s going on?" Jonah asked once they were gone.

"Is everyone awake? Let\'s go and have a meeting. I will brief you on what happened in Delta and we can talk about what to do in the future."

The party assembled they talked about what happened. He briefed them of the Willis Family and that he found his old party members already present in Delta. He also shared his thoughts about the Tower and its future operations.

He originally wanted to settle in Delta, get a building, open a store, and found a workshop. A place where Alison, Link, Evee, and he could improve their crafting skills in peace. The Tower was a great find, that already came with everything but a store. He wanted to stay here and make it his base.

Starting there they could keep expanding. He still had to talk more to Fin and the others, but he had no doubts that they would join him, too. A deal with the Willis Family and cooperation with the Tijaahk was also a possibility.

"I don\'t know. The Willis Family does not seem trustworthy." Alison commented.

~ True. It might be better to look directly for contact with the Chrona Empire for an energy deal. ~

"She\'s right. The only problem is that the elevator leads straight into their home." Link mentioned."

"We should find a different way to Delta"

~ I should be able to improve the teleportation system of the tower. It should be able to teleport directly to Delta. ~

Right, she was an expert for almost anything magical. Al\'Zalsa should be able to improve the systems.

"Errm, Am I interrupting something?" Lydia stood in the door. She had woken up some time ago and had been looking around the place. She had accidentally come across the meeting.

"Oh, hey Lydia. We\'ve been talking about how to get around making a deal with your Family."

Everyone grimaced when they heard Seth being so open but were surprised at the answer.

"Nice, let me help. Those stuck up, entitled bitches don\'t deserve anything!" she grabbed a chair excitedly and sat down among them.

"Don\'t worry. She\'s okay." Seth guaranteed for the cybergoth. He could already see Link\'s eyes glaze over. That guy was really a terrible womanizer. Or at least he thought of himself like that. Lydia was probably okay without his help.

"By the way, I couldn\'t help but hear a little about your plans. What\'s the name of your organization?" Lydia asked innocently.

Everyone looked surprised. They had just seen themself as a party until now, but everyone realized that Lydia was right. Seth had always avoided joining something like a guild, but at this point, was there a difference?

"Don\'t tell me you haven\'t thought of a name? Doesn\'t even your party have a name?" er questioning eyes bore holes into Seth\'s soul. No, he had never thought of a name for the party, or a guild.

"Ermm... Ah! We should wait for all members to talk about a name. I would not want to decide on it with just us." Seth found a convenient way to dodge naming them.

"Great. Back to the topic, maybe your friends can help get a connection with empire? Didn\'t you say they were part of a diplomatic delegation or dispatch or something?" Monique interjected. They kept talking about it a bit longer.

The result was that they first needed to teleport to work for travel to the city. They could not use the daily home call just to travel to Delta. With a way to circumvent the Willis family everything else would become a lot easier.

Next, they would have to talk with Drosi once he recovered. And Seth needed to contact Fin and the other to see if they could get them connected with someone from the empire.

"let\'s start with getting a shortcut to the city. Al, are you up for it?"

~ Sure, but don\'t you dare ignore our deal. ~

Seth summoned the spicy sorceress. Like always when she made an appearance, nobody could take their eyes off her. Especially Lydia was flabbergasted by her.

"Okay, let\'s hurry. Give me administrative rights and I will take a look at the systems."

Seth gave her the rights and she fell silent for the full hours of her time limit before she returned into the token.

~ This tower was definitely built by an expert. Originally the power was able to transport you anywhere in a radius of 5km. The problem was something in the city blocking its system\'s access. It is probably a measure of the Chrona Empire. ~

Everyone nodded. It made sense that they didn\'t want for people to willy-nilly teleport in and out of the city. Seth only experienced teleportation through the church. This was also the most common space travel in the pathworks.

But there were many other ways in the world. Just like how one did not necessarily need a priest of the church to open a portal. Powerful magicians could learn the spell and even create teleportation formations like in Minas Mar. The Fog travel of the Tuatha De was another one. Who would want people like that to randomly visit?

~ I tweaked the tower\'s systems a little bit and scanned for an access point. It\'s common practice to implement one since teleportation is too convenient to not use. There is a reception hall at the System Church that allows for teleport inside the city. You just need to get approval to connect. ~

This meant Seth was going to be busy today.