Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The next few days went without a hitch. Everyone did as they liked. Seth sent his letters and checked his finances. On their days off he would explore the city with Fin and Mina, otherwise, he would stroll around alone.

Delta was different from Y-City or Alpha, his hometown. Other districts were a vast megalopolis. As a district built as the seat of government, Delta had a smaller population and a much better structure.

It was split into residential districts, governmental districts, business and shopping districts on several layers that were built into the valley at the flank of one of the central mountains. Similar to Ora there was a lot of living and working space on layers below the earth.

Before Lydia had only shown him the surface, now he had the time to explore the underground.

In this era, money was made with merchandise from system classes and the shopping district mirrored this. Seth felt nostalgic thinking of Ora. Just that everything was super modern with electric lights and escalators.

Above earth or below didn't matter here. If anything, the stores below were even more exuberant than those above. Of course, there was not everything great. Several layers below were the cheaper and more shady stores.

The Level of merchandise was slightly lower than Ora but had a greater variety. There were just not as many rare items as there were in Ora.

In Ora, the shops of Blacksmiths were prominent. As such weapons and armor were a common sight. Here in Delta, it was a healthy mix of armor, normal-looking clothes, and fantastical-looking clothes ranging from common to rare.

There was also a type of clothes he had seen in Y-City and was glad there were not more. Superhero suits. And to his dismay, they seemed to be the hype in Delta. Modern textile knowledge and magical materials had created skintight super suits.

How had this happened? A dream started crumbling. His beliefs were shaken. There were very few of these in Y-city, but many shops here offered only these. They even seemed popular. What would happen to those great battles and wars between knights and mages, or the epic raids on boss monsters if people in colorful spandex onesies appeared among them?

How was it appropriate to conquer a dungeon looking like Super Brute and the League of Righteousness? Seth knew that these were just his personal preferences but... BUT who was responsible for this?

Seth casually started asking in shops how this unusual trend started.

"Oh, these? They were popularized by Neco Boos, the best Tailor in Delta. It is said he has a unique class. Only the best adventurers in Delta can afford his work. Who wouldn't want to be a superhero after seeing them fight the invaders?"

The answer was shocking but plausible. A tailor with a unique class was living in Delta. And he was a superhero nerd. How dare he taint his fantasy setting?!

Of course, Seth was not that upset. He would not do something petty like not selling anything to people in superhero suits. Nothing spoke against wearing the colorful underwear below a splendid armor.

With those thoughts, he soon left the shopping district behind. Today he wanted to take a look at the demon district. He had heard that this place had been a relatively unpopular residential area before.

The reason it was unpopular was the same reason why the Demons chose it. It was relatively close to the volcano. While the rest of the district had a mild climate, here It was warm and humid. It was the place that supplied Delta with geothermal energy before the apocalypse.

People did not like to speak about that time but with the awakening of the volcano, most of those facilities lost function. The area was also plagued by the stench of sulfur and other fumes. The place was already abandoned when the Demons arrived. That was all Seth could glean from the short conversations with people.

This place was handed over to the demons, in exchange, they made a peace pact and acknowledged the supervision of the Chrona Empire. Within Delta, they had to act according to the Empire's and Delta's laws.

Seth had an obvious reason for coming here. He was looking for a demon blacksmith to try and learn more ballads. It was interesting since Seth had never been to a demon settlement. Seth was from Urth, and he had seen a province of the Empire, but the demons were something new to him.

With wonder, he stepped into the demon district. The differences were so obvious that he felt like stepping through a boundary to a different world. The demons had not held back with modifications to the existing structures.

One could still roughly see what the buildings once were, but now they were like a gothic version of themself. Opulent ornaments, statues, carvings, and gargoyles decorated the facades. Spires and arches were added and completely changed the overall atmosphere of the city.

A light dry mist smelling of sulfur and smoke filled the street he entered. Before, this might have been an obstruction to him, but with "Argus' Eye" he could see everything clearly.

The place was not split into different areas for living and working. Shop windows were randomly strewn along and across some of the buildings. Even several floors above ground. It reminded him of a quirky version of a historical city.

Looking up he could also easily make out the reason for the quirkiness. Many demon races had wings or an inherent ability to fly. Demons were not bound to the earth, so shop windows on higher floors were not weird at all. It felt as if any demon could simply open a storefront and sell stuff from their living room.

The streets were not just the ground between the buildings, but the whole gap. In demon territory, one had to think of streets as 3dimensional. They perfectly used the canyons of the modern cityscape for traffic.

Seth was stumped as he had not expected this. Although they called themself demons, their culture was the kind of magical and fantastical he had expected before visiting Ora.

~Surprised? ~

"Yeah. I didn't expect this when I thought of a demon district."

~ Did you expect them to be wild and cruel creatures living in Lava caves? ~

"Maybe a little?" Seth didn't deny it.

~ Good, because some of them are. There is a lot greater variety in appearance and behavior among demons. Don't swing from one extreme to the other. Don't think just because they look or act cultured, that they actually are. One does not need to be or look brutal to be cruel. A cave-dwelling demon that looks like he eats children might be one of the nicest demons you will ever meet while a humanoid one will scam away your souls with a business smile. ~

"So, don't judge on appearance and don't trust them too easily?"

~ Just treat them like humans, but with even more caution. Like with humans there are good and really terrible demons. Demons just know how to hide it even better. ~

Seth nodded to show that he understood. It was too soon to be thinking that his image of demons was wrong. A good example was that amicable seeming caravan leader who turned out to be a human sacrificing maniac.

Still, not all demons planned the destruction of humanity. That made them okay in Seth's book and he decided that they deserved a chance.

Here it was <Universal Translation>'s time to shine. Everything was written in intricate demon characters, and everyone spoke a demon language. Only with the skill, he was able to read the store name and understand the gossip around him.

Most of the things he picked up were talks about merchandise and business across different worlds. Names of places and people he had never heard of. Politics of places he would probably never visit. What really became clear was that demons truly were an interdimensional race.

It could be gleaned from their everyday talks, that they had been traveling across dimensions since ancient times and it was something extremely normal to them. Not just the traveling, but also keeping track of political and general news from those worlds.

Thinking of this reminded him of the weasel folk and he realized why these were the main topics. What reason was there to travel across worlds if the goal was not to conquer?

Trade!

~ Don't jump to conclusions now. Yes, most of those here are looking for a business. It doesn't mean there are no demons intent to conquer. Don't forget what happened in Ora before we left.~

Al interrupted him before he could declare them as a race of merchants. Once again, the sorceress was right. He had seen with his own eyes what it looked like when demons wanted to conquer a place.

It was really too easy to forget when having this kind of magical and mysterious city before him.

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