Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The clerk led Seth to a luxurious dining hall. On the table already sat two people. Samuel and a beautiful Lady. Her skin was smooth and her eyes bright. Seth could not even begin to estimate her age but she was overflowing with a mature charm. She wore an otherwise loose robe that was tightened in exactly the right places to show off her curves.

"Seth! Come, here. Sit own. Let me introduce you to our guest."

"Good evening." Seth greeted the two as he sat down.

"Good evening," she answered with a smile and a clear pleasant voice. "Seth, this is Liza as contracted diviner of the church. "

"It is nice to meet you, Mr. Smith." Despite her sweet voice and friendly demeanor, Seth felt nothing toward her. Literally, nothing, as if she was a robot. She felt almost ethereal or detached. Her expression made it seem as if her mind was not here, but somewhere far away. And she simply looked through the here and now.

"Ah, yes. Nice to meet you, Miss Liza." Seth answered awkwardly. He had no idea how he should deal with her weirdness. As such he simply concentrated on the food, while Samuel took over the part of talking.

He praised her and explained that she was one of the top graduates of some magic institution and her master was a very famous Augur who would often be hired by some of the highest kings of other worlds.

As Seth concentrated on the food and only listened with one ear, he missed the two cracks in Liza's façade.

She blushed a little embarrassed when Samuel kept praising her and recounted some of her achievements. The other was when she watched Seth decimate the dinner table's contents.

It was not that he had bad manners or was a sloppy eater. Food kept vanishing before her eyes at a speed that seemed like a magic trick. And it had something disconcerting because it felt as if it always happened when she didn't pay attention. In one moment, there was a full dish of meat and rice before Seth and he ate normal, and the next time she looked it was an empty dish! And she was sure, that it was only the timespan of moments.

As both were stumped by the other's behavior it was Samuel's burden to carry the conversation to the main point. Finding the girl.

Lady Liza needed to know as many details as possible to improve her skills accuracy. Seth retold everything that had happened. This was also Samuel's first time hearing the full story about the brother that had been spirited away. Both, Lady Liza and the priest were touched after he gave them the diary to read.

"We will finish preparations tonight and tomorrow Lady Liza will perform a divination for the girl you are looking for," Samuel said with unexpected enthusiasm. So the priests of the church were still human, eh? He tended to forget when you saw their face while making money.

Liza smiled radiantly to transmit her confidence in her skills and reassure the customer. Seth felt weird, suddenly being radiantly smiled at by a beauty that felt so ethereal. Especially after retelling such a horrible story.

He was looking forward to finishing the quest and seeing what rank the Wandering Soul would have after it was restored. This was really his biggest concern.

The next day he was invited to a big hall with all kinds of symbols and diagrams drawn onto the polished floor. There was a bunch of bizarre materials placed in different circles of the magic formation that looked like monster parts and herbs.

"Please stand over here." the lady signaled him to stand in a big circle. He also saw the picture of Evee, the little sister, in one of the circles close by. The explanation was vague but easy to understand. This divination skill could tap into some of the data of the system and use them to search for players, as long as some kind of connection could be used as a basis.

The fact that Seth had a quest to find and care for the sister meant the system had information on the sister. Lady Liza could use her skill to try and tap into that information.

Once Seth was in position, she started chanting in a deep disconcerting voice. It sounded like a deep rumbling; completely unfitting the ethereal beauty uttering it.

Slowly glowing lines started to rise from the drawn circles and diagrams. They gathered together in the center of the room and formed a three-dimensional holographic map. The map showed the Y-City district before zooming and enlarging an area in the south close to the sea.

That was Arigiri at the coast of Homju Lake and the place where Evee had lived with her aunt's family. After it zoomed in on the city a huge area in the city was marked by a circle. It reminded Seth of quests in some RPGs and FPS he had played, where not a specific quest goal was marked, but a huge mission area where the player had to find or solve the objective on their own.

<Ding! Quest information has been updated!>

When Seth checked he found the marked area among the quest information and also marked in the map of his <Map> skill. he had never been to Arigiri, so it was a big red circle in the middle of a greyed-out map.

When he looked up, he found that the big circled area had started changing colors between red, blue, and green. Sweat started forming on the diviner's smooth forehead as she frantically chanted. This went on for a while, but the area kept changing nonetheless.

Her façade finally broke and she started wildly gesticulating and chanting. Seth could see the distress building up on her face until she fully covered her face with her hands and let out a big sigh. The color finally settled on blue. He guessed, that the area was probably not supposed to be blinking like that.

Quite similar to Seth's thought, the diviner soon explained.

"I was able to narrow down her location to this area but... Her current condition is inconclusive. If she was dead the color would be red. Green if she was alive. Blue means that my skills can't accurately discern whether she is dead or alive. I can only tell you, that she is probably not fine and healthy. I'm sorry."

After hearing the brother's story, she felt very invested in helping to fulfill this last wish. She had tried everything, but her skills were simply not enough to give a better divination about Evee's location.

Seth bore witness to the whole process and recognized her efforts. Locating someone to this degree, with just a picture, a wallet, and a diary, was already a great result. She was a good person and definitely worth her money. He would have given her a 5 Star review on pley, but he didn't think anyone would care with the current shape the world was in.

How much did Seth have to pay? He just needed to give Samuel 3 of the blood drinker weapons he planned to send back to his shop in Ora. This added up to values of about 50 Gold.

After a moment, the light started dimming and the hologram vanished. She had canceled her skill. The diviner looked so dejected that Seth approached her and patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry. This is already more than enough. We will definitely find her and bring her back thanks to your work." he tried to cheer her up. It helped a little and she put up a half-hearted smile. Her demeanor from before was gone and she seemed much more approachable.

"Thank you." she gave him a sweet smile.

Less like a mystic master of divination and more like a clumsy but charming neighbor girl. Seth resisted the urge to pet her head, he still had no idea how old she was. He couldn't possibly pet the head of someone much older than himself, right?

"It's good that you are satisfied with the result. Should I prepare the information on Arigiri for you? " Samuel stepped in with a big smile. He was very happy that everything had worked out in the end. It would have really hurt his heart if Seth denied paying.

"That would be great, thanks. I will talk with my party and we will leave as soon as the preparations are done.