Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

---Unclaimed Mountains, about 1 Month Later---

A giant body crashed into the mountainside, setting off a snowstorm and a small avalanche as it slid into the valley. Buckled wings, broken bones, cut tubes, bent metal, this bundle of broken parts of the corpse of the hashing bird.

The cat beastman that had been riding the corpse on its slide down, sat on it, fatigued. It was the eight hashing birds Mike met since they separated from Lydia and Ray, and the second he defeated alone.

When they started going north, aiming for the route that would lead to the mine of <Storm Ore>, these things appeared more and more often. After they were attacked by three at once, they suspected that they were after Ceres, because he had killed one at Morranto. Since Ceres could not protect him when there were more than two, they decided to separate.

Yet, despite Ceres leaving his side with Blotches, Mike kept running into these things, leading him to the conclusion that these things were not just after Ceres, but more numerous in this region in general...bad news in and of itself. Was he getting closer to their place of origin?

A single of these owls was no problem for Mike, the Chosen of Maahes, but if he had to fight two it would become problematic. Mike was not specialized in ranged attacks or aerial battles, which made such fights dangerous and tiresome. But meeting them more often was not the only thing.

The trade route that led to the Border Storm was supposed to have around ten smaller and bigger settlements. After two months, Mike had crossed a little more than half the route but only come through one that had people inside. It was a town called Sventin. Inc Town at the very beginning of this broken road. This begged to question: What were these birds doing with the people?

Another question was: What were they doing with the monsters? Mike had also met next to no beast on his way. The only creatures he found in these mountains were stealth hunters, with incredible camouflage skills. He had lost his Alpeka to one, four weeks ago. Assuming this lack of normal beasts was also the doing of the hashing birds was only reasonable.

Since then, his speed had significantly slowed down and he started to worry about his rations. When he separated with Lydia, he still had two fully stacked item slots with ordinary rations, and three not fully stacked ones with Link's meals. The ordinary rations had halved, and he started eating buff-meals to improve his stamina on the journey, as he didn't know when he would have to fight.

He was not hurting for food for now, but he didn't know if there was enough until he reached his destination. Looking at the <Map>, he decided to aim for the next settlement. Even if there were no people, he might be able to get some edible rations. At least, stocking up on food would take care of that worry.

With that in mind, he aimed for the next settlement. He knew that it was once a sight for copper mining, about a century ago, and was used to supply material for the construction of the districts. ImniCorp, the owner back then, left Delta a year ago and decided to reactivate many of the mine sites they once owned in this region. This was one of them.

Taking into account that he had met no people since he left the first city, the chances that it was still operating were slim, however, Mike found the small group of robust buildings still surrounded by a flickering barrier.

A terrible snowstorm started raging soon after he adjusted his direction and kept going for several days up until now. As a chosen of the god of storms and the fiery sword Whitehilt in his hand, the cold could stop him, only his vision was obstructed.

He was fine, but it was obvious that the weak barrier was already having a hard time resisting the elements. It was very different from the planned and well-maintained defenses of the bandit capital, Morranto.

When Mike approached the barrier from the snow and ice-covered street he found the small guard house empty. Usually there would have been someone that could open the barrier for visitors. It was a little inconvenient, but it was not something that could stop Mike.

With the barrier flickering in the storm, it was not hard to find a moment to push through when it was weakened. Although he felt the protective measures of the barrier crackling across his body, it was unable to deal any damage to the beastman clad in relic-rated armor.

Inside, the wind was weakened and Mike's visibility improved. The barrier had given him hope at first, but seeing what state it was in, it was probably not maintained for a long time. It would probably completely stop functioning in a week or two. At this point, it could barely weaken the storm, much less protect against a beast on the scale of the hashing birds.

The buildings inside were new, but they didn't look the part. Robust concrete block complexes with some windows and blast doors. They looked archaic and showed quite a few old signs of battle. They were built like this to resist the monster even without a barrier. It might have worked at the time when they were built, but with the creatures in the mountains becoming stronger and stronger it was hardly enough.

Surprisingly the few windows seemed fine. The blast doors showed signs of damage but nothing that was too serious. The small settlement seemed like it was not hit by any terrible attacks, yet there were no people. Five of the blast doors stood wide open, letting in the snow and wind, only the other two were closed. One of the closed ones was the one that led directly into the mountain, the mine entrance.

The two of the open doors Mike checked led into the smelting facility which he didn't check further since he was looking for food. The third led into a building with many rooms, the living quarters. It was almost weird how nothing here seemed out of order, except for the cold that had permeated the whole place. After realizing these were just the private rooms of the former residents without any kitchens or the like, Mike left.

The last two doors led to the joined building that held the storage and a cafeteria. There was nobody here either, however, the kitchen and the food storage behind it showed clear signs of being searched and emptied. Nothing else looked like people had left in a hast, but this was a clear sign that at least somebody took the food with them.

It was Mike's curiosity that made him stay, after seeing that there was nothing here for him. What had happened to the people and where were they? They private quarters were untouched, so they had not fled. Even in a haste, one would take some of their private things before fleeing, right?

The only places he had not checked were the blast door that led to the mine and the last, smaller complex. Before he left, he wanted to check them, starting with the smaller complex. The blast doors could only be manually opened and closed from the inside. In case there was a reason these doors were shut, Mike opted to enter a different way.

Jumping up agilely, he held onto the window sill of the row of small windows, roughly four meters above ground. Looking into the complex, Mike found that it was a wide hall, filled with excavation machines. The inside was dark, with no sign of people being inside.

After a moment, he decided to enter. If this was the vehicle fleet of the mining outpost, then he might be able to get a new ride for his journey here. Although Mike had not formally learned the rules of the street, the others in Minas Mar had shown him how to drive. At least he knew how to operate a car.

The windows were thick, something Seth had would have called armored glass, but still much more vulnerable than the blast doors. With a strike of the flaming sword in his hand, Mike easily opened one of them he used to get in.

Only the dim light from the row of windows illuminated the wide hangar. But as a cat beastman with extremely good night vision, the lack of light could not faze him. There were a lot of big machines Mike didn't know about but had seen in movies and TV. The slow and heavy machinery was not what he was looking for. As he looked for something fast, he heard a scuttling in the darkness.

"New target located. Beginning termination," a mechanical voice said from above.