Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1021. Genius Enchanterʼs Last Request

Seth looked at the sudden quest announcement in surprise. It had been a long while since the blacksmith came across a quest in the wild, that offered him a soul. Seth looked at the two other bodies that stubbornly resisted the flames. Were they the same?

Looking at the quest, Seth didnʼt think that it was hard. He had already killed Donnchadh, so the worst part was done. The wedding ring was probably among the stuff upstairs and it didnʼt say he had to bring it personally. He could ask the System Church about that Kingdom and use it to deliver it.

The blacksmith was actually interested in the soul of a Genius Enchanter, although the item indicated that Augur was only a journeyman enchanter at the time of his death, the items themselves were very good for his skill level. When he decided to accept the quest, their body turned to dust and vanished.

Then Seth looked at the other two. Like Augurʼs, their bodies had not been tied up. He saw this as a sign that these people were direct victims of Donnchadh and not sacrifices by the beastʼs barbaric underlings.

When he got close to the second corpse another notification rang. This body must have been massive when it was alive as the desiccated corpse had a similar build to Tekar, Minas Marʼs main tanker.

The reward this time was not as good, but again since the hardest part was already done, he accepted it the same way he accepted the first quest. Would the third quest be like this, too?

The third body Seth approached was that of a woman, the body still wore a ragged robe. The mouth and eyes of the mummy stood wide open as if her last scream of agony was preserved for eternity.

Unlike the first two, this one offered a skill instead of a soul. Seth guessed that it was because she was a priestess. The souls of priests were stained in the power of their gods, they couldnʼt just offer them as a reward.

However, he had to ponder a little longer about this one. Accepting it now would give him the guaranteed reward, but he would have the quest on his quest log until he did the optional mission, or forcefully ended the quest.

There was something bitter about ignoring or breaking off a quest, and an additional passive skill was never bad. Especially this one would be nice to have since he inherited her skill level. He once again checked the skill info.

8% was already okay for a free buff, but judging by the skill level, it would probably rise to 15% at the maximum level. Thinking of it like this, there was no harm in taking the head along. Maybe he got the chance to visit the temple of Ares at some point.

! >

Once he accepted the quest, he immediately got the success notification and his new skill. The moment he accepted the quest, the corpse turned to ashes and was gone, just like the other two. He had gained quite a lot from the deed of that terrible monster, but he couldnʼt really enjoy it.

After all, this came at a cost, a high one. Solemnly, Seth took a deep sigh and severed this train of thought. This was how the world had turned out and he couldnʼt change the past. He could just make sure that these sacrifices were not in vain.

He returned to the lobby where the golems were done packing everything into crates, ready for transport. Seth stacked the crates in his inventory and they were ready to leave.

“From now on, rush to the meeting place. Load up the bodies on the streets, but ignore the buildings. We will sort out everything and cremate the remains when we reach our destination.”

The blacksmith gave the command and the convoy of golems finally started moving again. Without looting the surrounding ruins, they reached the rendezvous point in 90 minutes, where the remaining 2/3 of the golem Army and Sivri were busy sorting items and stacking bodies to pyres.

Seth landed beside Sivri who was inspecting jewelry.

“Sivri, how are things going?”

“Everything is fine on this end. The golems fought a few beasts that were brave enough to get close, but nothing else happened,” she reported, putting the necklace she had in her hand to the side, and picking up another bracelet.

“Did you find out why they were delayed?” the golden dwarf asked, her eyes trailing over at the group of golems that just arrived. Although the golems were fine, most of their armors were damaged or completely broken after hours of fight against the Nem Marvo.

“Oh, just an undead creature that kept continuously reviving itself. The usual, “ Seth told her leisurely.

“But that wasnʼt all, right? You donʼt like like it was just that,” Sivri inquired perceptively. Seeing that she would let go of it, the blacksmith simply told her everything he found and suspected.

“The bizarre creature? And it worked with the scavengers to catch people... Donʼt worry too much about this stuff. You took revenge for them and itʼs not like we are doing this to gain a profit, right?” she encouraged him.

“Yeah, I keep telling me that, too,” he said with a wry smile.

“Good, how about some work to distract yourself from that?” she asked and threw a vambrace from the pile beside her at him.

“Pff, fine,” he chuckled and joined the dwarf in sorting through the items.

There were a lot. Although most items the golems brought were common or uncommon at best, there were more than enough rare and even some epic items to equip all the golems with new stuff. It was just a shame that, apart from some exceptions, it all was still a very motley collection of items.

One of the exceptions was a bunch of rare and epic Polyarkanate armors that were most likely left behind when the soldiers of the Scene were whisked away by the power of the demon MussaʼPractish.

The others were the 75 armor sets left behind by the Black Lion knight order, which the golems had found at the den of Donnchadh. They were epic-rated armors made of and enchanted with inlays of . On their chest, they all displayed the sign of a golden lion.

Even Seth had to admit, that these armors were of great quality, even when they needed a mana supply to realize their full potential. So much so that he deliberated infusing them with souls, to make their enchantments permanent, so the cost would not burden the golems.

“Honestly, I underestimate the amount of gear we would find just on the way...” Seth mumbled, when they faced the big pile of armaments, that was left after dressing up all the golems, even the scaled ones in uncommon, rare, and epic gear.

They had already truckloads of excess items and they had yet to hit the mother load. If it wasnʼt for the fact that he wanted the golems to be dressed up uniformly to fit in the inventory, this might have already been enough.

Naturally, the question of what to do with the rest came up. He couldnʼt just leave them here. There were many ways he could use it for their future, but he would have to talk with Mary and the others about the exact measures. The only thing he was ready to discard was the armor scraps that were completely destroyed by Donnchadh...

His thoughts were interrupted by the communication orb vibrating in his pocket.

“Yes?” he answered the call.

“Seth, I reached Tree Station 7... could you come meet me here?” Mikeʼs voice rang from the orb. He sounded a little pitiful. To have reached Spring City in just 4 days, Mike must have set off immediately after their talk and traveled with next to no breaks.

“Sure, but Iʼm in the middle of Y-City and canʼt just return. It will take a few more days, just take a break at Spring City, you sound like you need one. You should call Lydia, you havenʼt met for weeks. “

“Thanks, I will do that,” it came back, audibly relieved.

“Okay, until then. I will hurry to be there soon.”

The golems were ready, and the loot was sorted. Seth put as much as possible in crates and stored them in his inventory before they set off once again. The recombined, and geared-up golem horde was aiming for central Y-City to loot the stash of the Scene.