[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 169 – Temper, Temper

For a while, Komachi was hanging around the settlement grounds. Her Merchant cart was nearby but left largely unused. It wasn’t like her to ignore a new means of accruing powers, so something was definitely up.

She seemed to be in a different mood than usual, perched atop Chompers and strumming a new instrument.

Where did she get that? Sam wondered as he continued making [Bronze Ingot] after [Bronze Ingot]. After the first-time bonus wore off, they didn’t give as much Experience.

Coupled with his level 8 Blacksmith, the gains were definitely slowing down for what Sam was considering his “Bronze Age” of smithing.

He hoped to graduate to iron sometime soon, but he wasn’t insane enough to believe he could jump to it just like that. Of course, he would get all the first-time bonuses that he could once he was done making a truckload of ingots.

There were plenty of materials, after all.

I bet brass is going to come before iron, Sam thought to himself. He thought he was getting some good instincts for Blacksmithing. And with his new [Alloying] skill, he felt confident that he could tackle the more finnicky brass.

Then he’d repeat the process all over again, making a ton of ingots, turning them into all manner of tier 3 materials like rivets, nails, plates, scales, and more.

With a floppy mage hat, his cat looked like an eclectic traveling bard, using claws to pluck at the guitar’s strings as expertly as any pick could. He supposed she didn’t particularly need a guitar pick, even though he wanted to make one just for her.

It’d be small, thin and therefore potentially challenging. The item probably wouldn’t even use a single ingot. It was possible it might have some enhancements for Bard songs as well.

Whatever she was playing wasn’t bad, though unfortunately the rock music didn’t impart any buffs. The tune kept shifting and changing, like she was creating something new and wasn’t yet sure what it should be.

Chompers adorably stomped his paws to the beat.

It reminded Sam of how much he missed relaxing and listening to music. That had been one of the good things about old Earth, the diverse musical genres from across literal decades he could listen to at a whim.

If only he had some of his curated playlists. He could share them with Komachi to teach her the songs, and some part of old Earth would live on. She certainly seemed to enjoy them back then.

It was possible she remembered some, but with what clarity, he didn’t know. As much as it seemed Komachi was always a soul aeder to an extent, she wasn’t anywhere the same as she was now. Talking didn’t cover it.

And then, out of the blue, something changed. Flaming red notes danced about the area, expanding in rolling waves that rushed across the settlement and flowed over the walls.

The music, quite literally, filled the space.

The burning notes swirled across Sam’s arms and over his chest. [Heroic Rock] catapulted Sam’s Strength and Vigor, greater than even [Haste Mazurka] did for Agility.

The bard had found her element. Her genre.

And it was a damn good one.

Sam’s herculean Strength was bolstered even further. He had to adjust the way he crafted to account for the added Strength, because even while he was making [Bronze Ingots], his Strength mattered.

He could feel himself practically pulling apart the materials within the glowing white Artisan Orb, despite never reaching his hands inside.

The process was easier with higher Strength and Vigor, though how exactly, Sam couldn’t have explained it to anybody but a fellow Blacksmith.

It just was.

And when Komachi’s song finally wound down, and the buff faded, Sam looked up and shouted, “Encore!”

Komachi, exuberant as only a talking cat could be, picked up the beat again and Sam went back to work.

Over the following days, the workshop went from a beaten down area near the center of the settlement to a rough shack built from uneven lumber held together with bronze nails and some sort of alchemical glue that Matt came up with.

Each day brought new challenges to Sam. He exhausted his “Bronze Age” of both materials and recipes that he could think up. Using bronze to repair the dullahans was far more taxing work than he had expected.

He took the worst ones first, using plates, rivets, scales, and even modified ingots beaten into the rough shape of their missing parts. Repairing even a single dullahan using only bronze was an arduous and tiring process, even aided as he was by Komachi’s constant singing and the one-armed dullahan.

But with each success, he gained an inordinate amount of skill and Experience.

A few days later, Sam grinded his way to level 12 Blacksmith. Every moment that he could dedicate to crafting was spent bent over either his forge or the anvil.

There was hardly a moment out of the day when there wasn’t a rhythmic ringing of his hammer on the anvil. It managed to drown out the bubbling sounds from Matt and Raiko’s stations, and the constant sawing of Kai’s bench with his new [Bronze Saw].

Sam was a little surprised that there was no Second Order notification upon hitting level 10, but didn’t worry too much about it.

He didn’t even know what he would choose, so maybe it wasn’t all bad.

Of course, all those extra levels of Blacksmith raised his Voidknight level to 24. Slowly but surely, he was getting his Legend, Job, Path, and Profession on the same level.

Sam allowed himself a small celebration, holding Komachi over his head and parading her about after he got another Blacksmith level, pushing him up and over the 10,000 HP mark.

The added HP really helped, since he took a small amount of damage whenever a crafting attempt failed. And also, when he was careless and caused sparks or bits of molten metal to fly around.

There was a reason his area of the workshop was the largest.

He imagined it would be quite a lot worse if he had significantly lower Vigor. The [Skin Tempering] trait from Blacksmith really pulled its weight when things went awry.

Level 12 Blacksmith gave him another selection of skills, which seemed to be a few levels too late by his metrics.

Still, Sam couldn’t complain too much. He was eager to see what awaited him, though he doubted anything would be able to hold a candle to [Tempering].

[Weaponcraft Foundation]

(Blacksmith Skill) (F-Class)

(★☆Uncommon)

While anybody can create a weapon, proper Blacksmiths spend extra time honing their craft and understanding just what makes a weapon useful. [Weaponry Foundation] allows Blacksmiths to not only create superior weapons easier than those Blacksmiths lacking the skill, but they also gain bonus damage and durability when wielding weapons they’ve created. Due to your unique understanding and experience with weapons, this skill’s rarity has been enhanced by one level. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Strength, Vigor, Dexterity, and Awareness when using [Weaponcraft Foundation].

[Armorcraft Foundation]

(Blacksmith Skill) (F-Class)

(★☆Uncommon)

Armor is one of the Blacksmith’s main duties. Some prefer to keep hammering away without ever understanding the basic mechanism that makes one piece of armor superior to another. Dutiful Blacksmiths who take the time to acquaint themselves with [Armorcraft Foundation] are able to create exceptional pieces of defensive prowess with less time and work than their unlearned counterparts. Due to your unique understanding and experience with weapons, this skill’s rarity has been enhanced by one level. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Strength, Vigor, Dexterity, and Awareness when using [Armorcraft Foundation].

[Jewelcraft Foundation]

(Blacksmith Skill) (F-Class)

(★Common)

While not often thought of as Blacksmithing, [Jewelcraft Foundation] lays the groundwork for the creation of accessories of all kinds. Unlike Armorcraft or Weaponcraft Foundations, [Jewelcraft Foundation] is required to create accessories and magically endowed jewelry. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Strength, Vigor, Dexterity, and Awareness when using [Jewelcraft Foundation].

Sam felt like he was being crushed from the inside out. The pressure to pick just one of these incredible skills was seriously getting to him. It was the first ability selection for Blacksmith all over again.

How can I just pick one? This isn’t fair, dammit! They’re all too good.

Obviously, [Jewelcraft Foundation] was an outlier. Not only was it required to make those items, but it was also a lower rarity due to his unfamiliarity.

By this point Sam had managed to get most of his Blacksmith skills to Uncommon rarity with the exception of [Desynthesis], so both [Weaponcraft] and [Armorcraft] would fit right in.

[Tempering] was still there as well. But it had been 7 levels since the last time he was able to pick an ability and Sam wondered when the next chance would come.

With the Black City unable to come any closer, but his Skyshard unable to put further distance between them, he still had that to worry about.

For now, his only concern was raising their Professions so they could craft some decent equipment and tackle the Tower or at least make some headway on the Ascension quest.

And that meant he needed [Tempering], right?

If he could technically already create weapons and armor, then [Tempering] would allow him to make better base materials and even upgrade equipment by magically [Tempering] it.

Getting either an armor or weapon specialization after that point would presumably compound the benefits of both.

And yet, Sam still took far too long to choose. His decision wasn’t spent idly though. He put his [Desynthesis] ability to the test, destroying [Bronze Plates], [Bronze Nails], and the like.

Most of the time, the process exploded, destroying the item and giving Sam a small amount of Experience.

But sometimes he received the base ingredients back. With enough [Bronze Nails], Sam could use [Desynthesis] to break them down into [Bronze Ingots], then reforge those ingots into nails again.

It was a destructive cycle though, and eventually he would have destroyed more bronze than he gained by a wide margin. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to continually craft and gain Experience.

For that, Sam was more than willing to sacrifice low-tier materials that he only used when absolutely necessary, like getting the two dullahans up and operating if still limping.

In the end, Sam chose [Tempering]. If only to further give him another step in his crafting sequence to squeeze every drop of Experience out of bronze that he could.

From time to time, Sam checked the [Seeker Stone]. Slowly but surely, they were getting closer to the pobul Haman. At first, he was unsure if they were going to have to change course, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Maybe as they got closer, but for now, they were heading in the right direction.

It would only occur to Sam much later that he should have been concerned about that.

More than likely, certain Skyshards were going along similar mana currents.

Or maybe in this case, a mana jet stream?

He definitely wasn’t privy to how it all worked, or if the Sacred Tree was doing something in particular to aid in the search for Haman.

Sam did visit it one night and told the tree what he was trying to accomplish. He felt like a fool the whole time, especially when he asked for assistance, but that was better than the alternative.

The strangest thing was that he could have sworn he heard a woman’s voice. Nobody else was around, so he couldn’t ask them if they heard anything.

“Sure thing,” the girl said in a cheerful and melodious tone.

“What?” Sam asked at the time.

There was no further reply, because of course not.

He didn’t want to tell Raiko about the [Seeker Stone]. He nearly had one night, then he lost his nerve.

What if it didn’t work, and they found something else? He couldn’t stand to get her hopes up. He knew how it would feel if he had lost Komachi.

It was bad enough that Kale, Chris, and Kylie were still out there somewhere. He hoped they were okay, and it tore him up that he couldn’t do anything for them.

Soon, he promised them and himself. After I use this thing to find Haman, I’m coming for you three.