Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Typically, a hero would strengthen, the greater his adversary was, but that had its limits. Especially if he did not have the power of friendship on his side. The people that were currently with him, tried their best to convince the other side that they were not associated with him.

What was Harker even thinking? Seth frantically thought about their options.

~The great me can take at least one of them down, maybe two alone. ~ Puffles bragged about defeating the dungeon bosses. However, Seth had no worries about this fight. He was sure that other than him, everyone had hidden cards that could solve this fight.

But what came afterward? There were roughly 50 floors above them, and another 50 below. The party was most likely able to completely wipe the dungeon, but it also entailed not just taking away the shelter of thousands of people, but maybe even killing them.

It was a pain in the butt, morally and literally. Nobody among them wanted to have their secrets broadcasted to the universe, either. The only way to get out of this was to somehow appease the other side. The big question was: How?

~ I have an idea! ~ Oz said triumphantly.

~What is it? ~ Seth asked eagerly.

~ D o y o u r J o b ~ The lyre vibrated as the demon chuckled in his mind

~My Job..?~ the muttered and thought about it.

“Oh, yeah. My job,” he muttered with a smirk.

…

While the party did their best not to be implicated, the hero fought all five bosses and their guards to a standstill. Well, he barely survived their attacks for a full five minutes. But at some point, he would get tired.

Then he suddenly heard the tune of a song. Were his people finally helping him? He would have never expected for the bard to stand up for him. He thought he hated him. The battlefield came to a halt when the music started playing, but the hero was not happy at all.

His face fell when he heard the lyrics that suddenly wormed their way into his brain. It sounded great, he wanted to sing along, but as the target of the song, he felt somewhat wronged.

…

Our hero, our hero, has a warrior’s heart,

His arms are strong, his brains are fart.

Solving his problems with muscle alone,

Don’t do it, don’t do it, as the hero has shown!

His skill, sharp as steel, his Mind, dense as lead.

Without his strength, he would be long dead.

So, listen! Please listen, children at home,

Don’t do it, don’t do it, as the hero has shown!

The audience had long lowered their weapons and Seth stepped out of the encirclement. What started as bafflement, soon became smiles and even laughs among the crowd, as they made a circle to give the musician a stage.

The Infernal Scald, supported by the demon lyre, went on for a full 20 strophes, mocking and ridiculing the mighty hero as a crazed muscle head. Using witty remarks and insults, to tickle chuckles and laughter out of the audience, he diffused the tense situation.

He even had to sing it thrice. All the while he made sure to include the audience at home. Seth felt no inhibition by singing this song, since it was a simple tune, without any power greater than making people laugh and shaming the hero.

By stamping the hero as an idiot, unable to think farther than his spittle flies, he managed to calm the situation, to a point where he could speak with the administrator.

“I’m truly sorry for this embarrassing mishap.” Seth bowed to the grand vizier as his words found their place between the metaphorical daggers already sticking in the hero’s back.

However, Ben did not even react anymore. After listening to Seth’s song, four times, he had become numb and was sulking in a corner, where the other party members made sure he did not cause any more trouble.

“So, this is how they see me…” he kept mumbling to himself.

“Hmph. I will accept your apology. It had been centuries since I had some entertainment like this.”

“Yeah, how about you sing a few other songs!” one of the dungeon bosses interjected.

“What are you old thing still doing here? Go away! Go back to your posts. I don’t think there will be any more accidents.”

“You! You just want to-“

“Did you by chance not understand what I said?” the grand vizier’s red eyes glowed menacingly.

“…” the bosses and additional guards all left.

After singing a few songs for the Administrator, it was finally time to do what they came for. Get information. the old undead could not tell them any more about the current situation at the surface than they already knew.

“A citadel built into the cliffs on a coast.” the grand vizier muttered.

“Personally, I can’t help you with that. During my time there was no such thing within the borders of our kingdom. However, that was a thousand years ago. I will ask Lord Bar to answer your questions or find people to answer them. In exchange, I wand 300 Gold or an artifact of at least epic rating.”

He struck the ground with his staff and a chest appeared before him. Everyone looked at the undead dungeon boss in confusion. Since when did a dungeon ask to get paid?

“I can see you are confused. Did you think help is free? As the administrator, I have to manage the dungeon’s resources.”

“Ah, yeah. I was never asked for an item by a dungeon.” Seth answered jokingly.

“Maybe it would be appropriate for the hero to pay this, as your leader. Although, i don’t understand how someone like was chosen as a leader.”

“It was really more of a choice by class, than a choice by vote.” Seth agreed with the undead.

The sad, beaten and battered hero walked up to the treasure chest and proceeded to throw in 300 gold coins. The moment the last coin entered, the lid closed, and the chest was tightly shut. As if to say, that there was no refund.

“Oh, and hero? I can guarantee you that none of these people are held here against their will, nor are they under a spell.” the administrator said.

“Then why didn’t you send reinforcements with Ahmed? Or offered shelter to the refugees of Akhaz?” the hero said unconvinced. Ben accepted that his approach was wrong, but he still thought that there was something wrong.

The undead let out a deep sigh that sounded like wind blowing through a mausoleum.

“Resources. We can’t sustain any more people within the dungeon. We need all the capable hands within the dungeon to repair and maintain it cost-effectively. Are you happy now, that you know the shameful truth? Our great king lacks the resources to shelter everyone.”

The hero was dumbfounded. Seth was also intrigued. Despite traveling through a different world for a long time and frequently visiting dungeons, he knew very little about their inner workings. Thinking about it, it made sense, that everything in a dungeon came at a cost.

“Leave now. Go and pester Lord Bar with your presence. I have work to do.”

The situation with the hero had become slightly awkward, but the guard faithfully led them to Lord Bar of Baram. The lord’s office was a small room, not much bigger than a janitor’s closet. It was filled with cabinets and papers.

The man was once well-rounded but now seemed gaunt with his clothes being baggy. The mighty mustache and goatee would have been impressive in their prime but were now tousled and unkempt. Still, he had friendly and honest eyes, despite being a little fidgety in general.

Seeing the group and hearing that the administrator sent them, he seemed almost relieved to come out and talk with them in the hallway.

“A ruin at the cliffs of a coast,” he repeated similar to the administrator after hearing their purpose.

“Well, I can tell you one thing for sure, it’s not along our coasts maybe… give me a moment.” he went back into his tiny office and came back out with a map. It showed the outline of the continent they were currently on.

Going diagonally from the northwest corner to the southeast, where it had a thin land bridge to another big landmass in the lower right corner. Besides these two, there were also the coasts of two other continents, that were not connected.

The territory, taking in the continents they were currently on and the shores in the southwest, was called the Shathnizian Empire.

“I know of no places like you described along the former shores of our empire, or the sea we shared with Tyrybh’z. I also never heard of the Duchy in the north to have cliffs at their shores. “

The Lord showed it to them on the map. Tyrybh’z was the landmass in the southeast of the map, while the duchy was a big island to the north.

“Your best chance would be to ask the seamen that traveled to the western continent and Tyrybh’z. I know of a few captains and merchants in the catacombs that could help you with that. Let’s go visit them right away!”

The lord seemed eager to get away from the small room, filled with work and paper.

“My Lord, is that really okay?” the guard tried to stop him.

“Of course, it is. If I say it’s okay, it’s okay,” he told the guard off and hurriedly took the lead at the helm of the group.