Grim Reaper in the Apocalypse: Reaping Immortals

Chapter 60: Meeting a blacksmith

"What can I get from there?"

"There's lots of armor, weapons, and miscellaneous gadgets in the Armory Market."

Atlan was intrigued. Ever since he obtained the SSS class Apocalyptic Hellfire LifeSkill, he couldn't wait to try it out. Unfortunately, unless he had a weapon that could fire projectiles, his LifeSkill wouldn't activate no matter how hard he tried. But if he could buy a gun…

"Come on! It's not like you have anywhere to go anyway. The Training Hall Remedium is closed for the time being."

"Closed? Why?"

"HeadQuarters shut it down until they find out the reason why things went so wrong during your mission.

The Vanguards didn't want to enter knowing there was a risk, and the Operators didn't want to get blamed if something bad does happen. So, they closed it.

In fact, all non-essential Remedium portals are banned right now. People can't go to the Remedium unless it's for a mission."

Atlan was planning on killing a few Pseudo Canzers in the Training Hall, but it seemed his plans would have to be scrapped. And unless the Angels returned and things went back to normal, it looked like Atlan wouldn't be able to farm more Pseudo Canzers for now.

"Where do we go?" With nothing else to do, he relented and joined Lizzie to the market.

The truck strolled through the streets and away from the City Center down South. On the way, Atlan saw a lot of new architecture and large buildings unlike anything he'd ever seen. It didn't look like these structures were meant for humans to live in as smoke and steam billowed out of multiple chimneys on the roof.

"This is Masamune District, the industrial heart of Genesis City."

Atlan's eyes widened as he saw a hill in the distance with a large crater on the top. Smoke and bits of magma spurted out of the opening every few seconds. It wasn't just a regular mountain, it was a volcano!

This volcanic mountain was surrounded by large, blocky buildings, with large pipes interconnected with each other and eventually all leading back to the volcano.

"Mount Infernal looks larger than life, doesn't it? Without that volcano, we won't have the power to light our homes, we won't have water to pump from underground, and we won't be able to produce food to sustain us.

That is where the City's energy is mostly generated. It is a vital part of the City and we cannot let the Canzers destroy it. That's why this District has its own Specialist Saviors on standby, ready to go whenever a Symptom appears."

Specialist Saviors were three realms above those in the Student Realm like Atlan.

It goes from Student, to Pre-Intern, to Intern, and then to Specialist.

Atlan saw that almost every house, every building, every street, and even TVs had small pipes that connected to the main pipe and back to the volcano. She wasn't lying when she said that this volcano powered everything in this City.

No wonder they need Specialist Saviors to protect this district.

After a few more minutes, they reached the armory marketplace. The truck turned a corner and the large buildings of this street blocked his view from Mount Infernal. When he looked around, he saw an abundance of people walking and inspecting the wares of stalls and stores on the side of the street.

Even in the truck, he could still hear the passionate bargains from buyer to seller.

The sellers would brandish polished swords and throwing knives to a group of interested buyers, and the customer would throw out a counteroffer of some kind.

When he looked at the people buying, he noticed that most of them had distinctly foreign faces, with some being taller, more slender, and had a more bulbous nose than the people he saw in Genesis City.

But the buyers weren't the only special humans he saw in the street. In all the stalls that they passed, almost all of them were managed by dwarfs–humans with a short and stocky stature.

They all have the same dwarf mutation? In every district he visited, he always saw a mix of mutations around. Even if people had the same cat mutation, not everyone would have cat ears or tails—some just had whiskers on their faces. But in this district, the dwarves all had identical mutations.

"We're here," Lizzie said as the truck came to a stop. She then pointed at the building where armor sets and swords were displayed in glass cases on the front.

"You'll have a large selection of armor you can pick out from his store. I've been loyal to this place ever since the owner gave me personalized katars and daggers."

Lizzie parked the truck in one of the designated spaces beside the building.

Atlan noticed that this store was one of the few buildings with parking spaces for both mounts and vehicles. This place must be special.

Lizzie entered the shop ahead of him while Atlan looked up at the carved wooden sign at the front.

<Custodire's Armors. (Indirect Descendant)>

Indirect descendant? What does that mean?

Atlan walked inside the shop and immediately, the smell of oil and charcoal hit his nose. And even though it was muffled, the sound of banging metal resounded through the walls and filled his ears.

Don't they get deaf from that? he wondered.

CHIME

A single dwarf tinkering on his workbench turned to look at who entered his store. And when he saw Lizzie, he immediately dropped what he was working on and greeted her.

"Oh, puellula Lizzie! It's been a while."

The owner had curly black hair and a long bushy beard. He was wearing dirty overalls and a white t-shirt underneath with multiple greasy hand marks near his pockets.

"What brings you here? Have my claws done you well? I hope you're not going to tell me that you lost them in the Remedium again."

"I'm doing good, Custodire. It's been doing me well but I've been having trouble with grip on my claws–ah! That's not why I'm here.

I'm here for another business. I'm hoping that you'd be able to give this new guy better protection. He's quite careless with his SoulTime."

She gestured at Atlan to come and she introduced the dwarf to him. "This is Miss Custodire. She's my trusted blacksmith."

She?

Atlan was caught off guard. He would have never thought that the bearded dwarf was a woman. Granted her beard covered half of her face, he didn't see any hint of femininity on her. She was even more muscular than most men he saw in the City.

"What? Never seen a beautiful dwarf like me before?" she said, but Atlan didn't react. Custodire looked at Lizzie. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's never seen a dwarf before," she explained. "He's from the Unclaimed Lands."

"I see. Well, nice to meet you kid. I'm Custodire. You'll never see a more beautiful dwarf like me, so be thankful."

She offered her greeting and Atlan, after finally shaking off his surprise, shook hands with her.

"I'm Atlan."

His eyes widened when he felt a strong pressure crushing his hands.