Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The Tower Master didn't bother going the long way this time and simply used the mage tower's teleport to appear in front of the laboratories door. It wasn't locked and the door stood slightly ajar, so Seth carefully pushed it open to peek inside.

Beyond the door was darkness. The lights inside the lab were turned off. What was she doing with all lights off?

"Evee? Can I come in?" he asked into the darkness.

"Seth? Do you need something from me?" she asked surprised. At a snap of her fingers, the lights in the lab went on, revealing all kinds of specialized equipment for making elaborate enchantments, the arcane kind.

Evee stood at one of the work tables, whatever she had been working on was now covered by a sealed box.

"Were you working on something?" Seth asked, nodding toward the box.

"Jup, I'm working on a case for the flash grenade potion Alison is developing. When I'm done it should be like a modern grenade and further enhance the power of the potion. But it can't be exposed to light during the crafting process, or else it will incinerate prematurely;" she explained with enthusiasm.

Her fervent explanation and effort showed that the immortal witch didn't just have a talent for enchantments, but a passion. It was a shame she didn't care about weapon enchantments, or she could have become their most reliable enchanter.

"That sounds great. I came to bring you this," he said and lifted the scepter.

Like a short staff, it was roughly half a meter long and intricately carved from dark-gray metal. At the top shone a dark orb with a purple hue. This was the scepter Sivri created using the Orb of Dusk and every bit of special <Bones of Seth> Seth had left.

With over 10 refined parts of the Soul of the 24th Ethnarch that were boiled down to their powers of sorcery, magic, and necromancy, the scepter was the perfect weapon for a necromancer and Witch like Evee.

Not only gave Evee's class as an immortal Witch Seth hope that she would have a chance to even use the improvements to light magic, but her special trait to turn into an undead upon death also gave her ample opportunity to use the assassin-like skills of the Orb of Dusk. Not to mention that they would increase her overall survivability. As a necromancer in the middle of a mighty rotten army, she would be targeted as the weakest link in the chain.

"Oh~ This is great! It will be a great help since I became the chosen of Persephone," she casually dropped a bomb.

"You-What? You became a chosen of Persephone? When?" Seth asked flabbergasted.

"Oh, didn't I tell you?... I might have forgotten to mention it. It was during the last exploit in the Holy Land. While you guys were jumping Dungeons, I supported the Oathguards and Adventurers in battle. That was when it happened." she shrugged. During her whole explanation, she didn't take her eyes off the scepter even once.

"So? Come on, tell me, what is the class called? What can you do?" Seth asked eagerly.

After a moment of pondering, Evee explained that her Necromancer class had been turned to Underworld Fairy. Persephone was the Queen of the Underworld for half a year, but she was also a goddess of spring and fertility for the other half of the year. Like the goddess, her new class also had a dualistic nature, which made it similar to her class as an Immortal Witch.

On one hand, the Underworld Fairy had all the powers of a Necromancer but strengthened. This represented the queen of the underworld. On the other hand, as a goddess of spring and fertility, the few support powers the Necromancer class had for the undead were tremendously strengthened. Passive skills included that resurrected corpses would have a higher intellect and a health regeneration, which was out of the norm for normal undead.

She was even given the privilege to bind a certain number of undead to herself. This meant that these servants could not die. If they were destroyed in battle, she would simply have to wait for a cooldown to run out before she could summon them again.

"Your class is really unfair." Seth sighed, thinking of all the work he had to put in to get so many strong creatures under his command. At least his smelled better and were easier on the eyes,

"It is, isn't it? It's a shame that I don't have that kind of fetish, or I might really become a megalomaniac. I wish the class added some enchantment buff," she sighed, too.

"We can't have everything. Be happy with having two broken classes," Seth joked, getting a smile out of the stoic Evee.

They talked a little longer about her new class and how it could interact with the scepter when a sudden announcement made Seth's brain grind to a halt.

<Ding! Title: "Creator of Legends" gained. "Your creation the Hangingtree has become a legendary Guardian Tree." Your creations have it slightly easier to raise their level of existence.>

<Ding! Your skill Golem Artisan lv.6 has become Golem Artisan lv.9>

<Ding! Your skill Soul Infusion lv.7 had become Soul Infusion lv.8>

<Ding! Your skill Engineer lv.6 had become Engineer lv.8>

<Ding! Your Title: Creator had strengthened. +25 to the attributes of all inventions. 10% chance for inventions to gain new traits>

<Announcement: The slumbering Realm's awakening advances faster in the presence of the newborn Guardian Tree>

The Hangingtree had finally attained the legendary status and became a world tree? A slew of notifications ran through his brain, but he had a hard time retaining any of the information when he heard the last announcement.

The slumbering realm? Seth didn't 100% know what that meant bad he had a slight suspicion that it was nothing good. As the proverb goes " Let slumbering realms lie", or were it dogs? Anyways, Seth was sure it was better if either of them were not awoken...

He should have felt joy about the tree's ascension. All the trees along the Tree Route were profiting from it. The blacksmith now had a source of legendary wood, too. However, it was all immediately snuffed out. Even when it didn't directly announce its existence as a legend to the world, it seemed like it kicked off something equally bad.

"Are you okay Seth?" Evee asked worriedly.

"Didn't you also hear that announcement just now?" Seth asked her surprised to see her so calm.

"No? What announcement?" she answered confused.

Was it possible that he was the only one who heard it, as the hangingtree's creator? Another thing he had to worry about, it was best he talked with Leana as quickly as possible. Maybe she knew what all of this meant. The gods knew, he really needed some answers.

"Where are you going?" Evee asked perplexed when he suddenly jumped up.

"Sorry, Evee, I have to go talk about something with Leana. I will tell you about it later."

With that, he took off and teleported to the elevator that brought him to the embassy on the surface in Delta. When he arrived in the princess' office, he found her leisurely drinking tea. This was an unusual change of pace, as he had expected her to drown in a sea of papers.

"I'm not slacking, okay? I'm already done for the day. Looking at you, I can guess that the Hangingtree finally did the inevitable?" she asked defeated. Just when she thought she could get a break, something new popped up. Seth nodded.

"Yeah, but there as another weird announcement. It said something about a slumbering realm awakening faster," the blacksmith explained worriedly.

Despite his worries, Leana's face suddenly turned from surprise to happiness.

"Did it really say that? Are you sure?" he asked intrigued.

Seth was a little bewildered at her weird behavior, but he nodded at her question.

"Do you know what it means?"

"Yes, we could actually consider it good news. You already know that Urth used to have magic, but that vanished at some point, right? It's not the first world like this. From what I learned, the awakening is a phenomenon triggered by the influx of mana from the Pathworks.

Usually, it takes several years, maybe even a decade to happen, but so does the appearance of a legend. Seems like Urth just hates following convention.

Anyway, when the slumbering realms awaken, it means that more and more of the native supernatural creatures of Urth, that vanished with the magic, will start appearing again. Their resurfacing will be able to hide the fact that stronger beasts can now enter through the Pathworks."

"Doesn't that mean things will get even more dangerous here?" the blacksmith asked not amused. In addition to powerful otherworldly beasts and present catastrophes, old folk tales now also lusted for their lives. As if the current situation wasn't bad enough.

"Okay, medium good news. But we found that native flora and fauna will be inherently more hostile to foreign existences," she cheered him up. He only gave her a doubtful look.

"And not only bad thing awaken, you know? I'm sure there will also be amicable to humans.

We should send someone to ask Nas'korn or Samhach. After all, they were gods in that time, they should know what we have to look out for."

"If it's really as you say, Alison should be the better source," Seth commented. "Huh?" Leana looked surprised.

"Did you forget where you are? Minas Mar is the tower of the most powerful wizard in that period of decline. The library should be full of bestiaries. And the one who spent most of her time in the library is Alison."