166. Chase

"Where did this fire come from?" he pressed out between clenched teeth.

"Stop talking and concentrate on stabilizing the shield." the other reprimanded him. The patrol had split up in search of the amazon that had intruded. The two had been looking for traces and found a burned-out building they were investigating when the sudden wave of fire swallowed the pillars of stone.

The incredible heat singed their hair even with the shield they were painstakingly maintaining together. These two were still lucky to have entered an already burned-out building, so they only had to withstand a fracture of the fire's heat. Who knew what happened to the rest of their team?

The fire washed past them in a matter of minutes after which they broke down in exhaustion. After the shield was gone hot air rushed at them, it was almost too hot to breathe. looking out the window it was the first time they saw this place without thick fog. Instead, the cityscape was twisted with heat flares and filled with the crackling of heated stone.

Had the fire lasted longer, maybe all these structures would have broken apart.

"Just...what was that?" he said gasping.

"I don't know, but someone must have set this off. Maybe the amazon?"

"Or whoever burned off the world roots in this building beforehand."

"Another intruder?"

"Probably... We should go look for the others if there are still others."

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The party stayed close to the road that led away from the city. There was not much more they could do if they did not want to lose their way in the fog. Seth approached Tekar who was walking in the front-

"Tekar, take this. Just in case we have to confront them at some point."

Seth brought out an armor box. Tekar's eyes shone with a bright light when his eyes well on the contents. "Are you sure you want to give me this?" "I will lend it to you. It would suck if your tank dies because of crappy armor. Also... it's the only full suit I have that can change its size."

"You are really strong. Are you really just a blacksmith?" Lyca asked, approaching them from behind. The phrase "Just a blacksmith" irked Seth somehow. Seth thought of Tored's power.

"What makes you think I am not just a blacksmith?" The dwarf had easily handled Seth even when he started using the fire aura in the sparring sessions.

"Blacksmiths can be really terrifying, you know?"

Lyca's eyes widened.

"Really? "

~Oh yeah. I once heard of a very terrifying blacksmith. His deeds were a nightmare story for young nobles. ~

The amazon's eyes widened like a deer in the headlamps when Al in her astral form joined the conversation.

"Oh, do tell." Seth was also interested. They had long left the city and slowed down considerably. The rest of the party also sharpened their ears to listen to their idle talk.

~Hmm, okay then. The smith was called Weylant. In his youth, his village was raided and he had to flee into the mountains. After the death of all his relatives and the village burned down, he could only try to survive in the mountains. When he was almost starved to death, he was found by a dwarven woman, who was kind enough to adopt him.

He was allowed to live among the dwarfs, where he learned his craft from a divine dwarven grandmaster blacksmith. He had a great talent and soon had learned everything the master was willing to teach.

Now he was an adult and knew a craft. It was time for him to leave and join his own people. He made a name for himself as a great blacksmith and soon got the attention of a King. He was invited to his castle and commissioned with the production of a legendary sword.

In the night the king's men assaulted him in his sleep and cut the tendons in his knee pits. Like this, he would never be able to run or jump again. It was the idea of the Queen, to make sure that they would never lose such a good blacksmith.

Locked into the smithy Weylant was left with no choice but to make the sword for the king, but secretly he planned his revenge. With the kingdom's resources, he made a sword of incomparable power. Using a simple trick, he then switched it with a weaker blade he delivered to the king. The vain king could not discern the difference and was very happy, granting more freedom to the blacksmith.

He used the new freedom to seduce the king's daughter behind his back. When the king asked for two new luxuriant cups, he slew the king's two young sons and fashioned a pair of sublime golden chalices from their skulls, which he delivered to the oblivious king and queen.

After drinking from the skulls of their own family the couple was cursed by the gods and soon died a painful death from illness. Now only the Princess and Waylant's unborn Son were left to inherit the kingdom. The moral of the story is to never underestimate a blacksmith, even if he is weak or crippled even. ~

The party was not too shocked by the story. They were used to modern horror, so the story was still somewhat mild. But the amazon became pale like a ghost when the lich talked about the parents drinking from their children's skulls.

She slowly nodded when Al summarized the moral.

"Yes, I understand. Just like God Hephaistos, even if he is lame and ugly, it never bodes well to underestimate him. So it was because he is a blacksmith." Seth nodded approvingly, while the rest of the party could not quite understand this jump in logic there. "Thank you for enlightening me. My seniors always said blacksmiths were weak and not worth an amazon's attention, but they were simply ignorant."

"By the way, are you talking about the Olympian god Hephaistos?" Theta, a district covering a warm subcontinent was the origin of this mythology on Urth. Although that region was now overrun by monsters, thetian mythology was actually quite popular in Urth. Although, no one knew where exactly Mount Olympus was supposed to be on Urth.

Since she knew Hephaistos, were they really like those mythological amazons? They kept talking for a little while and Seth got the impression that they were a race of muscle brains. They looked down on the use of weapons and armors and instead trained their bodies to an unfathomable level.

They sounded like they were body cultivators, but in their case, it was a racial trait. They had no mystical technique that could be explained and learned. The party joined their talk and soon they also started about their home and the system.

"The Pathworks? They are actually quite a fun way to discover new places," she stated happily. She was not part of the system, so she, unfortunately, had no helpful tips or tricks to cheese the system.

From her point of view, the pathworks were portals that would bring you to a random world. Without the guidance of the system god, a targeted journey was impossible.

The party told the interested amazon about all the changes that had happened to their world and the system, that suddenly gave the magical powers and Lyca listened with a bright sparkle in her eyes.

"Maybe I should visit your world at some point in the future. It sounds really interesting."

"You could come with us, once Al brings us back!" Alison suggested enthusiastically grabbing the amazon's arm.

"No, once you guys are safe, I will return to my own world and recover. I might seem quite free, but I actually have duties to fulfill, you know?"

She had gotten them into this mess and she was responsible enough to stay and help in case something happened.

They kept moving for the whole day and finally camped out beside the street. Tomorrow the Token's cooldown would end and they could return home.