Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Flickering lamps submerged the rough mine walls in their unsteady line. The surviving mining personnel were huddling together, trying to share some warmth. Although the mines had proven their relative safety, they were cold and desolate.

Mike was staring at the communication orb as he supplied it with magic power. It stayed unresponsive, just like the little bar on the phone he got in Delta. There was no way to report back what he had just heard.

Cyber Worms, what a terrifying thought despite the stupid-sounding name. Mechanical parasites that invade the bodies of people and monsters, slowly taking control of their hosts. That was how Kruger, the man who finally decided to let him in, described them.

They would attach to the spine of their host and take control. At first, it would try to copy the host's behavior, but only to get closer to others and help other worms to affect them. When there were no more victims around, they would start consuming minerals.

The mortifying part was, that the host body would start to slowly turn into a mix of meat and metal. These hosts could only be detected by a special metal-detecting device. Kruger said it was originally used for mining purposes, to differentiate metallic ore from stone.

“We would have already called for help or warned others if communications worked out here. There is no phone signal so far out here, not that it would get through the constant storms.

If you are really a lord from Minas Mar, you should be strong enough to help us get out of here. I don’t know why you came here, but you should drop it here and return with us,” Kruger talked to him insistently.

Mike looked at him for a moment, giving it a serious thought.

“No. I’m on a divine quest. I can’t return before I find <Storm Ore>. It’s too dangerous to take you along.” Mike revealed his goal, hoping the man would be more understanding. Mike couldn’t just drop his objective and walk back all the way he came from, just to escort a bunch of strangers to safety.

“I can let you come along when I’m on my way back,” he added and fell silent again, staring at the com-orb in frustration. Not just because he couldn’t contact Minas Mar, but also because of the guilt he felt, denying Kruger’s request. He could only soothe himself with the fact that, that he wouldn’t take too long, since he acquired a car.

Kruger’s face froze for a moment when he heard Mike’s goal, but then it suddenly turned into a smile. An expression that absolutely didn’t fit his face and made the beastman feel uncomfortable.

“Then all our problems are solved!” Kruger exclaimed in joy. “I took the last batch of storm ore when I fled from that wretched mine,” he said and brought out a clean metal box as if to prove that he had it.

“You have <Storm Ore> here? How?” Mike asked confused by the man’s sudden action and claims.

“Ah, oh…well…” he stopped his cheering hesitantly. “You see, I wasn’t originally stationed in this place. I was the guard overseer at the mine directly beside the perpetual storm.” Mike looked at him, his gaze clearly asking why he was here then.

“You see, things went to shit there first when these things started appearing, kidnapping people. So, I grabbed the last batch of high-quality ore and got out of there. Not my proudest achievement. Even less so considering the car ran out of energy halfway down the road. In the end, I was stranded here, while things only kept getting worse…”

“Then the car outside?” “Was mine, but you can have it, and the ore! Just take me- I mean us along,” he begged Mike and opened the box, showing him a bunch of glistening rocks. It was clear that this man valued his life, making his story about cowardly running away with a sack full of booty more believable.

Reluctantly, Mike took the box the man was offering, to make sure it really was the ore he was looking for. Although the chosen of Maahes had no appraisal skill for materials, the system rang the moment he held the box.

<Ding! You have obtained high grade <Storm Ore>: 5kg. Your quest has been updated.>

<Quest: Holy Armaments of Maahes

Difficulty: Special

Travel into the unclaimed mountains, toward the perpetual storm at the border between the mountains and the desert. There you will find <Storm Ore> fit to be used for Maahes’ Holy Armaments.

Requirements:

1. You have to travel alone. Currently: True

2. Obtain at least 50kg of medium grade <Storm ore>. Currently: 10/50

3. Find or become a blacksmith master. Currently: False

Rewards:

Blessing of Maahes on the ore.

Blueprints of Maahes’ Holy Armaments>

“Do you have more ore?” Mike asked after seeing the quest log. It seemed that the conversion between high-grade and medium-grade ore was 1:2. As long as he got four more boxes like this, he would be able to fulfill all quest requirements.

The fact the ore he got counted to his quest showed, that the quest did not require for him to reach the storm, or the mine at its foot himself. However, Kruger’s expression fell when Mike asked for more. He seemed a little nervous.

“I-I do have some more! Here, here, is that enough?” he asked nervously as he brought out three more boxes, looking at Mike almost desperately. When Mike took them one by one, the completion rate of the quest rose, reaching 41/50. It was just barely not enough.

“Tsk, almost,” Mike muttered under his breath. “Almost? What do you mean “almost”? I already gave you everything I had. Do you know how much that is worth? Aren’t you getting a little greedy? Just how much more do you need?” Kruger asked agitatedly. Mike didn’t blame him and tried to explain.

“I didn’t make the quest requirements. I still need 9 kilos of at least medium-grade ore to meet the quest goal,” Mike answered calmly. Although he felt bad for the man, he couldn’t just turn around without finishing his quest requirements. Of course, he was ready to give the boxes back to the man.

Kruger’s face darkened as he mulled over the problem. He knew that the others at the side were listening to this conversation. Despite his cowardly nature, it seemed like he was truly concerned about them and was trying his best to get them out. Suddenly, his face lightened up.

“The car! The car! There should still be some bags of ore in the car. They were already inside when I stol- when I took it. I don’t know what quality they are, but maybe that will be enough!” he quickly shared his idea.

Mike nodded slowly. If he was able to fill the rest of the requirements with the ore on the ATV, then all conflicts would be solved. It wasn’t like he wanted to leave these people behind, but that they couldn’t because of the quest. If he had finished the quest, there was nothing stopping him from helping these people return and then get home himself.

“Let’s go look then. The quicker we get out of here, the better.” Kruger said and briskly walked to the blast door to the mine. Mike followed him at some distance. The man had seemed quite careful before, but with salvation in sight, he seemed almost hasty. By the time he caught up to Kruger, the older man had already passed the inner gate, waiting for him at the outer one.

“Press that button and close the inner one, while I open the entrance,” he asked Mike. Despite being in a hurry, he still remembered the safety measures and treated the two gates like an airlock. The beastman followed his request and soon the inner door was closed, and they were able to step outside into the snowstorm.

Nothing had changed. The snowstorm was still raging, the barrier still flickering. The settlement lay silently before them. Still, Mike had become infinitesimally more careful after hearing the story of the cyber worms. They walked over to the ATV. Kruger surrounded it and opened the hatch for the storage in the back.

Mike had only searched the cockpit when he looked to whether it was still usable, he had not checked the back, back then. Following Kruger, he found that the back of the ATV was half filled with simple jute sacks. Unlike the high-grade ore, the more normal ores were treated with less care it seemed.

Unceremoniously, Mike started throwing them in his inventory.

42,

43,

44,

45.

The number on the quest log continued rising, while he got notifications that he obtained <Storm ore>. However, over 90% of the contents here were low-grade ore which didn’t count so the number of the quests only rose slowly. It also explained why someone just left it in the ATV Kruger could simply steal. This was the stuff that was almost not worth refining, but too precious to throw away.

48,

49,

52.

Still, by the time he had put more than three-quarters of the sacks into his inventory. At this point, he had ore equivalent to 52kg of medium-grade ore and 170kg of low-grade ore.

<Ding! You have fulfilled two requirements of “Holy Armaments of Maahes”. Please find or become a blacksmith master now.>

The notification rang in his head. He smiled wryly when the system told him to simply become a blacksmith master. He had seen the struggle Seth went through to become one, so it sounded almost like a joke. Now he just needed to return to Minas Mar.

“Mike, careful!” Kruger suddenly exclaimed behind him, when Mike was distracted, checking his quest status. The man’s sword swiped through the air and the cat man was able to hear a thud in the snow. He whirled around, just in time to see another thing wriggle on the ground.

Whitehilt flew from the sheath and Mike severed the creature as it shot itself at him with incredible speed. Only then, in the light of the flaming sword, was he able to see what he had cut. Still wriggling on the ground was something like a snake.

Its body was made from segmented metal parts that glinted in the flame's light. The head, if one could call it that, had three blade-like prongs or mandibles resembling the inside of a mixer. These prongs were seeping with a clear, slightly yellow fluid.

“We should hurry. Let’s get the people from inside and flee.”

Kruger nodded and the two men ran inside, closing the doors behind them.

“What was that? Those things weren’t there when I initially came here.”

“My guess is that they lay dormant until there are signs of life. Like … literally everything you did after coming here,” he answered with a shrug, and he walked forward to open the inner gate.

When they returned to the mine, the survivors had already gathered. It was the first time Mike saw all of them, they were pitifully few. He had seen the living facilities that were probably meant for hundreds of people. Before him stood a measly 10 and they weren’t looking well. At least they would easily it in the back of the ATV.

“Did you get all your food and stuff?” Mike asked again to make sure. They nodded silently.

“Then let’s get out of here.”