Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Although Polter and the others were on the edge of their seats, as they watched their friend Caleb barely overcome the sudden challenge in the wild, the stadium's main screen was currently following someone else.

Hao Ying, the Fleeting Flute, known to the audience as the musician competition winner, was also participating in the obstacle race. he was one of the more exotic racers. When the race began, he threw out his flute, which enlarged and allowed him to ride it like a hoverbike close to the ground.

Shooting off on the flute, which cried out in a martial sound from the air flowing through its holes. The spine-shattering sound left a trail of blood behind, as the weaker contestants started screaming and bleeding from their eyes and ears.

As per the rules not deadly, but incapacitating. The musical cultivator was one of the main culprits for more than half the participants not even being able to leave the mountain plateau. Like the swords surfers and broom riders, he was very fast and nimble.

However, it seemed like he could not rise very high above ground, traveling more like riding a hoverboard. Accidentally, this saved him from suffering the fate the others faced. By staying close to the ground, he was not impeded by flying beasts.

Quickly advancing in the rough terrain, he managed to be among the leading figures, however, his luck finally ended. He was zooming along the frozen mountain crests when a massive Ice Troll jumped out of an ice crevice and smacked him off his path.

Hao Ying had been thrust into the darkness of the mountains, landing at the bottom of the rift. he was one of the few who entered the subterranean paths that led below the mountains. As one of those furthest ahead and entering a new location, all attention was on him.

...

Pain pulsed through his right shoulder as he crashed onto stone flooring. Gasping he rolled on his belly. Would the creature follow him down here? He had to move. It was the only thought in his hazy mind, right after the impact.

Darkness enveloped him. Not being able to see anything, his hands scurried over the ground and he tried concentrating on his qi sense to get an outline of the surroundings. The ground was weirdly dry for the bottom of a rift in a glacier.

The floor was also very smooth and when he finally got an idea of his surroundings, he found the walls were upright and smooth as well. This was not a natural cave. One hand holding onto the wall of the corridor was in, he looked back up.

He could register a hole in the ceiling, but there was no light coming from it. how deep had he fallen? Using his inner vision, he tried checking on the state of his body. His right shoulder was busted. His refined bones were cracked, his ligaments torn, and his flesh badly bruised.

As long as he found a quiet place to sit down and meditate, he would be able to heal given some time. He was lucky to have worn the Star Meadow Garments given to him by his master, or the damage may have been worse.

After ascertaining his situation, his attention focused back on the corridor he fell in. This was obviously a man-made structure and he wondered whether his falling down here was an accident or on purpose. Was this part of the race or maybe an ancient ruin even the Urthans didn't know about?

His heart started beating faster at the thought that he may have found an ancient necropolis or the tomb of a primordial noble. This was the instinct of every cultivator from the Voracious Cloud Continent. it was not uncommon for people to stumble over forgotten or hidden ruins and have fortuitous encounters.

Occasions like these could turn some humble commoner or farmer into a cultivation genius that would shake their province, sometimes even have an impact on the continent. Although the Urthans used strange magic and "technology" now, he had also heard about a talk of an ancient time when other powers reigned over these lands.

Hao Ying was a curious man, and he had listened to many stories about this world and one he thought of now was the fate of the Saintess of Samhach, who was the guardian of one of the tree Stations.

From what he heard, she had been exploring an ancient ruin, when the god chose her and granted her his powers. Some factions may look down on such given or borrowed power, but the young flutist didn't discriminate. If he could become "chosen by a god" as these players said he would gladly accept the power.

Keeping his excitement in check, he started following the long tunnel. There was also a good chance that this was part of the race. Minas Mar had survived these mountains for months, would they really overlook something like this?

...

No, no they would not have. While Hao Ying entered through one of the various side entrances, the other runners had also reached a towering mountain ridge, that was hard to climb or circumvent on foot.

Lucky for them, there was a way through. The head of the runners reached a massive entrance gate directly carved into the solid mountain wall. Flanked by massive columns and statues of Asterion, it looked like the entrance to an age-old temple, built into the bedrock of the mountain range.

"Vathon really outdid himself here, didn't he?" Seth commented, watching the scene on the big hologram in the center of the stadium. This discovery also answered the audience's question of where Hao Ying had fallen.

Vathon Stonechiseler and the group of masons Minas Mar had taken in went absolutely ham on this. The blacksmith had been denied the entertainment of owning a dungeon, sanctified by the dungeon god. So Minas Mar simply had Vathon make one from scratch.

What was even more interesting than a normal obstacle chase? of course, when part of it led directly through a dungeon, wrought with traps and seeded with treasures. This was a surprise and a distraction for the contestants and the audience.

Would they take the risk to explore the dungeon to find treasure and ignore the race, or would they try to choose the quickest way through the labyrinth to stay in the lead?

"The third batch of young dungeon worms also helped, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to finish the whole structure in time," Mary gave credit where it was due and Evan nodded to her in thanks.

"There is already a third batch?" the blacksmith asked Evan surprised.

"Yes, they hatched three months ago. They are still a far cry from a fully grown adult, but this made them just the right size to tunnel the base passages that were then refined by the masons and golem miners," Evan gave a short explanation on how they did it.

"I'm looking forward to how it turned out, " Seth said with a smile.

The bard had purposely stayed in the dark about the different stages and parts of the obstacle race, so he wouldn't spoil himself. He only knew some of the things that went into the making of this dungeon, such as a handful of rare and epic-rated items made by Neill, Liam, Orry, and the other craftsmen they had recruited and nurtured.

if one's goal was a valuable item, they actually had a better chance of striking it rich in the dungeon than winning the race. But Seth was sure the other wouldn't have made it easy for the participants to actually take away these items.

"We did our best to make a fun-to-watch dungeon, although most of the traps are not lethal," Leana said, as they watched the runners enter the maw of Minas Mar's very own custom dungeon, not trademarked by the Dungeon God.