blacksmithoftheapocalypse

483. Expansion of Tree (2)

“If you want to, you can accompany me back to Mary and we can talk with her about the details,” Seth suggested after sharing his plan.

Of course, this was only the tower master's quick idea. They would still have to ascertain and work out the details of Mary. Although it seemed like a good idea to them, mary might have a different opinion.

They would have to convince her first. Despite Seth being the Tower Master, he made sure not to drive a totalitarian reign. He was way too ...

482. Expansion of Tree

Before his steps lead him to the Tree Chamber, as he jokingly called the giant cavern where Karina's Hangingtree was growing, his stomach led him to the kitchen.

“Hey, Seth. Did you come for a snack?” Link greeted him. The gourmet hunter was always in the kitchen, no matter at what time Seth came by.

“You are always here and cooking. Do you even sleep?” Seth asked with a chuckle.

“Nope.” Link answered jovially.

“What?” the blacksmith asked baffled.

481. Certificate

After his talk with Mary, Seth had a better idea of the situation in Minas Mar. She had assured him that she would take care of the Church for Samhach and talk with Yvette about the procedures.

He, on the other hand, would take care of their merchandise and the forgeries. Since very few combat classes came with an appraisal skill, few people in the lower levels could differentiate good weapons from bad ones.

An amateur would not be able to see the difference between a Mithril Swor...

480. Sorting things out

He had gotten what he came for. Answers and a deal to have Al'Zalsar research <Ithildin>. In exchange, he was given a new worry. The sorceress had given him a copy of her notebook, where she summarized some key points that she found out about this foreign world from the invader and her conjectures.

Seth was in deep thought on their way back as he skimmed and read through the lich's notes.

The world the invader came from was called the “Voracious Cloud Continent”. Accordi...

479. Baiting

The sorceress had acted with their good in mind and Seth felt his heart warm with gratitude. Not too much though, since she kept him here primarily to study him. The sorceress had unimaginable methods to treat her enemies, stuff Seth couldn't dare to imagine. And he didn't feel like fining out, so he didn't ask to see the man.

“I understand, thanks to you, Al. A legend, hmm? You still can't explain to me about legends, right?”

The sorceress opened her supple mouth but grimaced...

478. Floating Delta

“... Okay, what happened!?” Seth exclaimed after stepping out through the doors of the system church.

Delta, a city located among the mountains, was surrounded by beautiful peaks and snow-covered mountains. Or rather it HAD been the last time Seth was her he had a good view of Delta's panorama.

Now they were gone.

Looking to the heavens above Delta, these picturesque peaks had now turned into floating islands and filled the sky above the cityscape. Snow and water were s...

477. Welcome Back

Having finished his business in the capital he was ready for their return to Urth. The empire had already prepared everything for their return to Delta. Just a few days later, when the time and circumstances were right, the people of Urth assembled in the Temple of the System God.

Feanys was also present. She had finally decided to accept Seth's offer to join Minas Mar and would follow them to Urth. The complementary sigil ring was already shining on her finger.

The portal was alr...

476. Tingling through the Temples

After the award ceremony, Seth and his Team stayed for a little longer in Chrona. The blacksmith took some time to spend with the friends he was going to part with and give the friends he was going to leave with the chance to wean themselves from the depravity of their Chrona lifestyle.

When they returned to Minas Mar, the vacation would be over.

The most important thing he still had to do during this time was visiting the temples of his patrons. He hoped they could give him a hin...

475. Somewhere Else (13)

--Sigma--

„Are you sure those things will keep their word? Do you trust... them?“ he asked his friend.  They were sitting in a chaotic apartment, surrounded by grime and dirt. The whole building was abandoned after it was half destroyed by a portal instance.

„Of course not. There is no meaning in trust in the kind of world we live it. However, do we have a choice?“

„..True, but-“

„They should arrive soon, so shut up, unless you want to anger them.“...

474. Spirit Smithy

The rest of the distribution went without major hiccups. At least Seth felt no need to step in and his mood improved once the ordeal ended and he left with Wraithguard and the spear.

Not only Seth returned quite happily to their mansion. Ellie was also glad to have gotten what she wanted and was humming an upbeat tune beside him.

Other friends, like Polter and Marcel's group also accompanied them part of the way, smiling about their haul.

Polter actually invited them to cele...

473. Vestiges of History (3)

In the end, Seth found no other items that were better than the spear and the gauntlet.

Although the king might have given his advice with some other intention, similar to what the wizard had talked about, but Seth had little interest in retracing Forgebrand’s steps and finding some kind of inheritance.

Especially since he came to dislike the dwarf’s style after seeing some of his items. Seth had constantly kept using the <Soul Infusion> to try and improve his items and ...

472. Vestiges of History (2)

Just seeing the spear, Seth immediately recognized the technique to use <Soul Infusion>. On the spear, itself and the soul within he could recognize parts of the golem formations he had learned from the <Golem Artisan> skill.

Even the “summon elemental” effect of the spear was similar to Seth’s token he had been able to use to summon Al’Zalsar to his aid. The enchantment that granted magic immunity was an eye-opener to Seth as it was completely different from the one...

471. Vestiges of History

They insisted to advise Seth to destroy the mask, but they didn’t know what Seth knew.

An item that had mostly negative effects on the user was called a cursed item. A mask that actually took over and transmogrifies the user into a monster could even be called outright demonic. Demonic had nothing to do with the demon race but was meant as a synonym for really evil in this case.

Yes, such an “evil” item was a problem. A problem for any hapless bloke that stumbled over it and...

470. Awards and Evasion

In the days up to the award ceremony, more people kept visiting their mansion. Polter would come by regularly and Faenys had become a regular guest. She got along well with team three and was almost part of the team, already.

They had not put it on paper yet, but it was promising.

As a kind of surprise one day Elza stood at their door, with a slightly disgruntled Marcel behind her. The ice magician looked uncharacteristically shy when he met her in the salon.

“How can I he...

469. Temple and Tasks

A few minutes later Seth entered the light of day again. Overall, the experience in the Temple of Hades had left him a little speechless on all fronts. He was touched, awed and slightly confused by what happened down there.

His conclusion now that he had some time to think was, that Hades was quite the likable god. Despite the little image problem. The god of the underworld neither acted imposing nor overly arrogant. He even helped him in a quick and concise manner.

Since the thre...

468. Trinity Temple

Until the announcement of the Evaluation Results, their rewards, and compensations, Seth was free to do whatever he wanted. Except for spending time with his friends, there was one thing he wanted to do while in Chrona.

To follow the dwarf's advice and look for his sponsors for a way to lift the curse on the Dragon Scales. The blacksmith had asked Leana for information on the temples in Chrona and was surprised to find that hundreds of religions had temples of all sizes in the capital, ...

467. Good Days

Seth was thinking of what the emperor had told him. When he advised him to take a look at the items of his predecessor, did he mean that Seth should try to find out more about the origins of his first-class?

Surely, there was merit in that, though Seth lacked the motivation to give it much thought. He had more than enough stuff he had to delve further into already. He had just started to find interest in the musical side of his second class.

He had just started exploring the possi...

466. An Audience

The messenger had looked frantically for Seth, who was not in the room designated for him. Originally, he was simply supposed to bring Seth to his interview, the one Hardwig announced to them.

However, when he did not find the blacksmith in his room, things became more complicated as the time ticked away. After asking around, he came to the guest mansion of Urth, where he had waited for Seth as the servant would not tell him where he went.

A little perplexed by how urgent the mess...

465. Messengers

His head filled with thoughts, Set left the dwarf’s mansion and slowly walked back to his own. The old dwarf shared with him two methods he was able to think of.

The first was to offset the curse with another material of equal power. Depending on the material it could also require someone like an Alchemist to process the material. However, the dwarf was unable to give him any tangible example since he did not know the specifics of the curse.

Except for things that were widely kn...

464. Somewhere Else (12)

Prince Mur was violently stroking his head fins when he heard the news. It was the equivalent of a human tearing their hair in agitation. He had just gotten the news that the Chrona Empire’s Evaluation ended in a spectacular finale.

And he had missed it.

He had been ordered to return to Theta and lost his excuse to delay his departure when the broadcasts fell silent. The Crown Prince ultimately failed to conquer Beta and to make matters worse, he had withdrawn most of their troo...

463. About Ithildin

“Don’t get me wrong, Boy. It's not because I don’t want to tell you. Let me explain.” the old man added, seeing Seth’s fallen face.

From what the old dwarf told him, the way to create <Ithildin> was similar to <Olympian Silver> or <Bones of Seth>. One needed a specific ritual to be created and required several conditions.

<Ithildin> was <Mithril> that was infused with the energy of the moon and gained a high affinity with magic, the night, w...

462. Joining Depravity

“” Yo””

“What the!?”

What greeted him was the sight of Lydia and Mike in full-power sloppy couple mode. They wore baggy couple pajamas and spoke in sync. They did not even lift their lazy asses off the couch. Civilized life had corrupted him to terrifying levels.

A real cat boy lounging on the couch in sloppy clothes reminded him of all kinds of not safe for work fanart he knew from the internet. The beautiful woman with colorful hair did not help Seth ascertain ...

461.Deals’n Shares

“M-My name is Albert. I’m the head researcher on topics concerning the Theocracy of Chains” the old man introduced himself shyly after Seth entered the research institute, following the princess.

“Seth Smith” the blacksmith introduced himself concisely and kept looking around.

This laboratory was squeaky clean. The walls were lined with big cupboards and apothecary cabinets with hundreds of drawers.  the middle of the long room was filled with several worktables for...

460. Meeting the Losers

Only after stuffing himself did Seth direct some more attention to the others at the table. Having just shared a touching moment with Fin, the rest of the table was looking at them flabbergasted. Only Mina was chuckling beside him.

Even Ellie and the other he knew for a little longer were put off. It was the first time seeing the blacksmith’s unrestrained eating. Recently he had been holding back in public, but after the kind of journey he had been through, he didn’t care about his ...

459. Brunch

What greeted Seth the moment he stepped through the gate was Mina’s tear-stained face that directly went in for a kiss. It was a quick and hurried kiss while her quivering hands were framing his face. The next moment they wandered all over him to make sure he was alive and not hurt anywhere.

“You are back! You are back! I was so worried...” she sobbed.

Seeing the usually strong beast woman in tears like this ached his heart. Instinctively he pulled her into an unyielding hug...

458.Reinforcements Arrive

He stepped out of the portal. Night had fallen, but he could still perfectly assess their surroundings. The first thing his eyes laid upon was a city in ruins. A part of it looked freshly burned down, while the rest were century-old ruins. Not much more than foundations and some broken walls, overgrown with grass and weeds.

“Lord Astora, we found the three recorders but there are no signs of the participants.” one of the knights at his side reported to him.

Moments later the s...

457.Dragon Curse

<Lance of Shortinus (Tainted)

Epic (Legendary)

Damage: 700

Mag. Damage: 700

Durability: 450

1. Piercing Damage is multiplied by 0.5

2. +20% Damage against the Divine

3. Increase all attributes by 3

4. Dragon Curse

5. -Broken-

6. -Broken-

The Lance Shortinus once used to strike down a great Deity and become a Legend. The craftsman’s name has been lost to time.

Item has been completely corroded by a strong curse and is...

456. A shame

Using the reinforced ribs as benches, footholds, and ledges, the ragtag team was traveling through the earth inside the belly of Python. It was an impromptu plan and the blacksmith had never planned to use python as a vehicle.

That was why there were no actual seats installed.

~Are you sure we shouldn’t get as far away as possible? If I have to fight that dragon, there are no guarantees that you get out alive. ~ Python warned.

~Don’t worry, this is the best hiding spot. ...

455. Came in like a wrecking ball

-- Keväti Kuinen--

“Fall Damage. And we already bought enough time.” he cued the finale.

The next moment Tatzel’s mom broke through the surface of the earth. Seth could help but falter every time he saw its status. Especially since he couldn’t see all of it because of his level, despite being the creator.

<Python the Blessed [Imitation/Seed] lv.--

Trait: Blessing of Gaia, Erath travel, Unlimited Stamina, Draconic Complexion

Race: Deity-Golem

Age...

454. Big Momma

--A few Weeks Prior, Delta--

“The giant was a disappointment. Something this big isn’t worth it without a fitting soul.” he lamented, looking at the 40-meter tall giant knight in the golem hangar.

At this size, the compatibility of the soul to the body also became a question. The blacksmith had used a massive snake-soul to operate the giant. This had worked on similarly sized snakes, but it was barely able to sustain the giant for 10-20 minutes.

The lack in synergy bet...