Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1284: Spilling like a read letter

For ten minutes he had Elder BuʼGe explain to him about the cultivators that tried to settle in the vicinity of Spring City. Apparently they were a loose coalition of smaller sects that decided to set up branches on Urth.

Since the arrangement between the System God and the Voracious Cloud Continent, Urth was no longer treated any differently from a new province of the Cloud Continent. This meant it became a land of opportunity for them to look for resources and land to settle.

However, Urth was a dangerous place. Their continent had already been big, but it became vast with the connection to the Pathworks. It also became filled with monsters, settling and growing outside of humanityʼs influence.

Even cultivators with levels in the 80s had troubled just traveling the eastern parts of Urth, where it was connected to the Cloud Continent through a passage. Even when using their flying ships, which was in itself a risky undertaking.

Hearing the cultivator describe the changes in the no manʼs land had Seth realized that he probably still underestimated their world. Although he didnʼt worry about Minas Mar, outside settlements like New Hope, where Pip came from, could be in trouble.

It had not sounded this bad when the fleet commander from Epsilon came to them. However, Joannia Taggart and her people had been moving in a huge formation. What sane beast would try to attack a whole fleet of huge ass flying ships?

Their sects were too small to be able to send enough people to set up a branch in the wilderness, so smaller sects had the idea to settle in places close to Minas Mar that were mostly pacified. Although these lands were not safe, they were safe enough.

To cross the wilderness, his and two other sects had entered a loose alliance and traveled together until they reached the central mountain range. they split up in the vicinity of Spring City. Although Seth asked, Buggy didnʼt know the location of the other sects. However, he knew the location of his own.

“Buggy, do you think you could take care of them for me? i know they are your former sect, but...”

“No worries, mate. I see the error of their ways now. I will get rid of them, for our future. i will be back by noon!” Elder BuʼGe swore to eradicate his former sect with his own hands. Exactly as the blacksmith intended. However-

“Ah, are you leaving right away? There was actually something else I needed your help with. My inventory has been filling up lately and I could use something to store items in. Do you think you could lend your storage ring to me?” Seth couldnʼt just let the man leave with his loot.

“Oh, of course! Here, my storage ring. I will remove my mark. There is still all my stuff inside, I hope you donʼt mind. If you need anything, feel free to keep it,” the elder leisurely handed all his treasure over to Seth, before jumping into the air and flying away to kill his own allies and subordinates.

The bard watched the man leave and he felt slightly conflicted. This kind of effect made him feel really icky about mind control and brainwashing stuff. He absolutely didnʼt like to use it. If it wasnʼt for the elf and the sect hiding, he would have just killed Buggy on the spot.

When he turned around to return back inside, he found Mina and Fin already coming out to join him in the cold night air.

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“Is he gone?” Mina asked, not seeing Buggy anywhere.

“Yup, he just left to get rid of his former colleagues,” the bard said with a slightly conflicted expression.

“It will be okay,” Mina supported him.

“ Yeah, although Mind control stuff is creepy, itʼs not like you do it for fun,” Fin added.

“Thanks guys. Should we get back inside and loot the rest of them?” the blacksmith suggested to distract his mind. Loot always raised his mood.

“We already searched their bodies and took everything of value. Letʼs go to our new room to look through the loot there. The receptionist offered us one for free, since the penthouse is now littered with corpses,” Fin informed him excitedly.

For a moment, Seth thought about looking for soul fragments and maybe taking their bodies back with him to turn them into golems, but he chased away those thoughts. This was his vacation and a bunch of lv.80+ bodies were not worth it. Unless he ripped them directly from their bodies, cultivator souls were also not really special.

“Yeah, letʼs get to our room.”

Although Seth was looking forward to the loot at first, he quickly found that the stuff the disciples had was rather... well, most of it was cultivator stuff. There were some pills the system judged as uncommon stuff that gave various common buffs, some books of techniques that didnʼt count as skill books, and talismans the blacksmith couldnʼt appraise.

Interesting stuff like materials, potion ingredients, or magic items was scarce and the things they had were uncommon or rare at best. Seth had already seen the “skill” of some of these artificers, when he fought that weirdo from the Silk River Sect, when he was ambushed. The items on these people showed a similar lack of workmanship.

The continent seemed to be a very mixed place. On one hand, they had stuff like spatial rings and pouches that were something for the strong and wealthy, but not necessarily scarce. On the other hand, well-crafted weapons seemed like a rarity. The quality of weapons seemed to vary drastically even within sects and regions.

Like the Sword Elder Gak held, the primordial Silver Blade. Before it was broken by Python, it had good stats, and he got an interesting enchantment from it, although it was all specialized for cultivators, it was an objectively good legendary weapon.

He also suspected the leader of the Silk River sect to have wielded a legendary weapon, although he never got to appraise it. On the other hand, the crude meteor iron sword was also from the silk river sect... Maybe they stole the good weapons from somewhere else?

Nam also had a good sword. He also said that his sect used to be one specialized in artifacts. If those places were regularly destroyed and looted, it would explain the huge discrepancy of good and shitty items. If good craftsmen hoarded their knowledge and were periodically killed for their items, proper knowledge on the craft could never propagate.

Elder BuʼGeʼs spatial ring was a little better, mostly because it was a spatial ring Seth was able to use. its contents were not much better than what the disciple carried, proving the manʼs words, that their Sect was small and not overly wealthy.

The best the elder had been carrying around were some epic-rated herbs he probably found in the mountains of Urth and didnʼt bring along from the cloud continent. Seth had actually expected the ring to be full of insect stuff, before remembered that living things couldnʼt be put in these storage rings, same as with the inventory.

“This is kinda a bummer...” Fin mumbled. The fairy had been a little excited, since it had been a while since she had the chance to fight and loot someone. Yet, their profits were not much better than going for a walk in their own herb gardens.

“Donʼt say that, this spatial ring is worth more than enough to me,” the blacksmith said with a small smile. It was a good spatial ring with about 10m³ of storage. It couldnʼt compare to his own Legion, but that wasnʼt the point. Seth wasnʼt interested in the actual item, but in the material that allowed it to hold this space.

With this, Seth planned to upgrade the alchemy station he had created. The blacksmith had already been planning on further expanding his soon and this just allowed him to add another point of improvement. Nelothʼs efficiency would go through the roof once he had his own storage space.

“Letʼs show these talismans to Master Mountain, or maybe Dowloon or Nam the next time we see one of them. Iʼm sure they can tell us whether they are useful or not. Letʼs go to bed for now, Iʼm tired...” the bard suggested.

“” Argeed .”” the two responded.