blacksmithoftheapocalypse

1044. Master Mountain and a Friend

Seth didn’t dawdle and got himself presentable before he hurried to the elevator to the embassy. A staff member already waited for the blacksmith and guided him to one of the guest rooms on the upper floors.

He was looking forward to meeting Master Mountain, not just because they had become quite friendly with each other, but also because he was their best source for information on this breed of people called cultivators.

Most important was the news, because of their last meetin...

1043. Final Trinket

The first surprise was that he got 100 points of Power of Existence for a unique item. Seth knew that Unique was not bound by the usual rating. A unique item could be worse than something uncommon, or better than something epic... did that mean the Lucky Trinket was now considered to be on the same level as a legendary item?

Inadvertently, his eyes jumped to the ring, that was still floating in the bubble of water and appraised it.

<Lucky Trinket

Unique

1.+80 Luck 2024-03-17 12:19:08 +0000 UTC View Post

1042. Soul Refinery goes -brrrrr

Seth quickly sifted through the pile of items. The system money quickly found its way into his inventory. Among the things the golems had collected were also credit cards, however, at this point in time these cards were useless.

They were useless because most of the banks and institutes supporting them were now gone. The destruction of Y-City had also wiped out most of the big conglomerate families still left in the Districts, many of which had been part of the Scene.

With the gre...

1041. Dig Dimblood

<Dig Dimblood lv.102>

Seth remembered the name, the moment he saw the tied-up creature. It was the cobbler Strik had talked about. Like Forebone, he was a tiny man, his height barely reaching Seth's upper thigh, however, it took two bulky His moss green suit, flaming red hair, and a scraggly beard were all messed up with dirt and blood. It seemed like catching him was quite the struggle.

Behind him were three others of similar level. A pale, haggard person with big golden fr...

1040. Changes

---Delta---

The wave of cultivators Master Mountain had prophesied finally came. Over the past weeks, Delta had become a hotchpotch of people. Apart from the natives, travelers from foreign worlds, demons, and cultivators were now mingling in the streets. At least in some places.

Not in this place. This place was a restaurant, built in the style of the Voracious Cloud Continent, these had been popping up everywhere ever since they arrived in greater numbers. Delta, with its many e...

1039. The Colossus of Rhodes

What Seth aimed to build in the advent of the coming Pythian Games was:

The Colossus of Rhodes.

In Urthan legend, the colossus once stood on the island of Rhodes, close to the Peninsula of Theta that reached into Urth's great ocean. A massive bronze statue towering over a straight that led to the bay and harbor of Rhodes.

When the bard deepened his knowledge of Olympian Mythology in the library of Chrona, he found that the massive statue of Helios was a recurring structure, ...

1038. Hubert?

“Tower Master! Your guest is at the meeting room on the 24th floor,” the lady in the lobby greeted him friendly.

“Thanks.”

He didn't press her to find out who was waiting for him and simply thanked her before he turned to the elevator. He has some thoughts about who it would be, but the person sitting in the meeting room was-

“Hubert?”

Seated at the table was Hubert McCarthy, the dimensional merchant Seth came to know during the evaluation in Chrona. Seth h...

1037. Flowing Damage Carry

Seth was just joking. He didn’t have the time or will to scold Mike. In life-and-death battles, he couldn’t blame him for going for the vitals. Currently, he just wanted to get back home, since he didn’t know how long the next project would take.

“Here, put it on, let’s see how it looks,” he said and brought out the crate, that held the Slaughterer’s set.

One by one, he took out the various armor parts and explained their effects to Mike as the chosen put them on. As...

1036. Where are those reactors?

Inside the pub was a single cultivator surrounded by five people with daggers, wearing black thief attire. The man in the center had several cuts in his clothes, bleeding from various shallow wounds. He had long, black hair and sharp eyebrows. His sleeveless robes revealed the arms, thick like trunks. No wonder he was able to punch someone straight through a door.

Another was still held up by the throat. Despite being surrounded, he was not at a disadvantage.

When the five surroun...

1035. Group of Thieves

Seth had no idea what exactly influenced it, but the right blade was specialized in combat and only made physical damage, while the left one was specialized in magic and only caused magic damage. The blades had only five effects with three unique effects each. However, each effect was very special.

The right one lent the user Blade Master, Crimson Flood, and the passive skill <Scourge of the Battlefield>. The first raise all sword-related skills by a full tier, when using the Slau...

1034. Slaughter Blade

“Things became a lot calmer in the village,” Mina told him over dinner.

“Really?” Seth asked surprised. Although he did make an example of the croaking Cricket, or whatever his name was, he didn't expect the cultivators to tone it down. Master Mountain had told him that they were usually very stubborn. With the many different factions now mingling on Urth, it was hard to believe they were able to hold back.

“I exchange, the mountain range outside of our influence seems t...

1033. Slaughter's Crown

“Sivri, how far are you with the belt prep?” he asked friendly.

“Almost done, why?” the golden dwarf asked, looking up.

“Could you finish the snake head? Then I would start on the belt,” he offered. Sivri looked over at the crown.

The snake was almost done, but Seth realized that he was getting lost in details. The best way to deal with work like this was to give it to someone else. His time was better spent working on the belt. Sivri, as Goldsmith and Enchanter,...

1032. Midnight Deals

---Outside Little Gamma---

Under the cover of the night, a group of masked figures met on a peak,  with a view of the massive tree in the distance. Some wore clothing of the Voracious Cloud Continent, others had completely hidden themselves with dark cloaks.

“How many people did we manage to smuggle into the actual city?” one of the cultivators asked. The half-faced silver mask did little to really hide his face, instead, it accentuated his charm in the starlit night.

1031. Slaughter's Scale Armor

After reminding the group that they didn't have to treat the hooligans like citizens, Seth stayed for lunch, before returning to Sivri's side. After all, the blacksmith was not here on vacation, although he wished he was.

Even when he joked about vacation, he actually looked forward to making the Slaughterer's Set, as it was something completely new to him, and making something new was always fun.

“How is it going, Sivri?” he asked as he returned to their room.

“Almost...

1030. Stalking Cicada

This morning, Seth left Sivri alone in the workshop, to finish up the pieces they would need for the belt and crown. The bard followed Yulecat’s Fur and Ray to the Pythian Village to face the man who bullied his girlfriends.

The party guided him to another place built in the style of the Voracious Cloud Continent. It looked very fancy with a lot of gold, and red lacquer, alcohol, and…

“Errm, is this a brothel?” Seth asked amused, seeing the ladies dancing in revealing clot...

1029. Blood of Maahes

While Sivri started refining the rough gems, Seth started up the furnace to refine the <Arcane Gold> and <Mithril> from Donnchadh's hoard. While the Nuggets of these two materials generally occurred in pure form in nature and not as some kind of ore, they would still have inclusions of host rock. Seth used the furnace to burn those out. It didn't take long and helped him get in the groove of using the furnace.

Because the next step was the <Scarlet Ore of Maahes>. As t...

1028. Don't you “tehe” me, you little-

Zhu Ling fled through the streets of the Pythian Village. His stars were still hurting and the battering he experienced had also left him hurting all over. But hotter than the burning of his wounds was his indignation and anger.

“How dare these wenches set me up like this!” he exclaimed, to let off steam. He had lost a lot of face today.

“Brother, you should call the people from the Zhu family! What is Minas Mar? Once they face off against true experts, they will see how gre...

1027. The Frowning Crane

After unloading most of the stuff on Baker, Seth felt much lighter. But maybe he was just looking forward to seeing Fin and Mina. He arrived at Little Gamma without Problems. Just before he left, he remembered the list of quests he had gotten at Donnchadh's basement.

Send Augur's Set and Wedding Ring to his Wife, Return Wilkin's Sigil Ring and inform  Duke Vraccas of the Black Lion's Fate and your deeds, and sacrifice the Nem Movo's head to Ares. He was able to fulfill the first tw...

1026. Guest Lord Seth

---TS7, Spring City---

knock knock

“Hello, Lord Mike? You have a guest waiting in the lobby,” a clear voice could be heard from outside the door.

Tardily, the beastman surfaced from his sleep and the sea of sheets, careful not to wake the warm and soft being that was holding onto him. Leaving Lydia in the bed, he snuck to the door and whispered through a small gap.

“Who is that guest?” he asked in a hushed voice.

“Lord Seth.”

Mike halted at the ...

1025. Somewhere Else(29)

---Delta, Northern Wall---

The wall wasn't looking too swell. The past months had already been hard with the constant attacks of infected beasts. The disease that was ravaging the north of Urth was terrifying, with a danger level that could even threaten the whole empire if it were to spread to the Pathworks.

“Tsk, these cloud continent bastards...” one of the soldiers cursed.

Despite things being dire, the situation had been improving lately until the cultivators starte...

1024. It's empty

--- Minas Mar, Embassy---

“How are the last preparations for the games going?” Mary asked at the orb. Inside the orbs, it showed Cade, Karina, and the members of Yulecat's Fur who were currently at Little Gamma to test and oversee the venue. Apart from Mary, Jane,  Leana, and Luf were also present.

Their plans had changed a little over the past weeks. Minas Mar decided to open the games to anyone, this included demons, cultivators, and players from other worlds.  Thi...

1023. Blacksmith and the Shoemaker

---A day later---

“Seth, I think you should have a look at this,” Sivri called out to him when they were looking through the third branch of the player association. Unlike before, this place was truly empty. The floors were littered with cut-down undead mixed with dried blood.

“Someone else was here before us?” the blacksmith asked a little surprised.

Quite a few of the weapon crates and some of the armor crates in the storage were emptied. Monsters wouldn't do somet...

1022. Tapatorc

The Center of Y-City was more dangerous in general. Not many of Baker's scouts returned from this place. The ones that did had barely anything out of the ordinary to report, except for the presence of powerful beasts.

From their reports, it was clear, that there was a mix of powerful beasts and creatures that got the other scouts, despite their great stealth skills. This led to the conclusion that the number of beasts spawning because of the slumbering realm's awakening was much higher ...

1021. Genius Enchanter's Last Request

<Quest: Genius Enchanter's Last Request

Quest Difficult: S

Augur Ursson died an unfair death in the fight against Donnchadh. He was inadvertently brought to a foreign world during his honeymoon. Avenge his death and return his wedding ring and possessions to his widow.

Requirements:

Kill Donnchadh 1/1

Find Augur's Set 1/1

Find Augur's Wedding Ring 0/1

Return his Possessions to his Wife in the Kingdom of Grican 0/1

Reward: Genius Enchanter's S...

1020. Soul of Donnchadh

<Soul of Donnchadh (Epic,Ex,Ego)

The soul of a Nem Marvo, an undying being, forcefully detached from its undead body. Soul contains 85% of the Nem Marvo's original knowledge and skills and 12% of its personality.>

Ex and epic, the soul had similar specs to Al'Zalsar, though it was obviously weaker than the frightening Lich and spicy Sorceress was. Well, it was also more than 60 levels below her. Seth really questioned whether there was another size beyond Ex...

Unlike ...

1019. Nem Marvo

<Donnchadh lv.115

Focused, Annoyed

1000/1000 HP  165 000/578 000 Mana

...>

Its health had completely recovered.! About 50,000 Mana were spent to mend all of its wounds and return to peak condition. Judging by how much mana it had and how much it spent slinging curses and spells at the golems, this had probably happened six or seven times already!

No wonder the golems were stuck in a continuous standoff. At this point, Seth could have stepped in. They w...

1018. Donnchadh

Over the next few days, the force of Golems started spreading further and deeper into Ypselon and Y-City. After their initial combined combing through a big stretch of ruins, the army splintered into smaller teams led by older golem knights that used to follow Wolfram.

24/7 these golems kept on fighting and raided dungeons on the predetermined routes Seth and Mark Baker had decided beforehand. The smaller groups would keep merging to raid higher-level dungeons and split up to get smalle...

1017. An official purge

“This is the Tower Master of Minas Mar, speaking. Hereby I announce an official purge of Ypselon. To all entities able to understand human language: If you face the golems, put your weapons away and lie on the ground. If you do so, your lives will be spared. If you don't, the golems will identify you as the enemy.”

The bard's announcement echoed through the streets of the ruined city, as he followed the wave of golems that penetrated the surrounding buildings.

All of the golem...

1016. Like a swarm of locusts

---Minas Mar, 5 days later---

Seth was looking at the assembled golem they had finished over the past two weeks. The number was impressive, but their presence was a little underwhelming because of their mostly mismatched-looking gear.

Apart from the ones that happened to wear actual armor sets, the crowd resembled the result of a child who got a bunch of action figures and started disassembling and reassembling them, but with the wrong parts. The blacksmith could only hope this wo...

1015. Reaching Thres

---Beta, Thres---

A caravan of battered trucks and carriages was creeping along the steaming mountain ridges. Claw marks and other signs of battle covered the vehicles that were barely running at walking speed, but they kept slowly drawing closer to Thres.

Mike lamented Adam's preparations. The rescue team from Thres had put everything in place in a short amount of time. Not only had they infiltrated Emerald City and gathered information, they had also procured ample space for the...