Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

After finally reaching adept in all his occupational skills, the growth slowed down. Compared to his experience with <Blacksmith> he was still a lot faster thanks to Tored's tutelage and help. The items, design, and enchantments he made Seth do were the most efficient way to level up the skill.

Still, even Tored was surprised with Seth's growth at first. Even without his cheatsy <Soul Smithy>, he was growing much faster than an ordinary apprentice. It was until the dwarf remembered, that Seth was an ori huma, to begin with, and enjoyed a great growth buff from the start.

It was one evening during the sparring with the ax-wielding dwarf. His <Weapons Mastery> had been stuck at 99% of Adept lv.9 for quite a while. Tored had told him that this was not too uncommon since <Weapon Mastery> was a secondary skill. These often need some kind of inspiration or breakthrough to level up, especially on the higher levels.

The trigger was <Energy Circulation>. With its level rising, the effects of the skill became more pronounced. The forge was where it really shined because it was a circulation optimized for blacksmithing. It eased the stress of constantly working with high-tier materials and he was now able to barely forge non-metallic materials. Unfortunately, the efficiency was still even worse than simply using Charon's Obol.

When used in battle it would strengthen the weapon with short bursts of mana during crucial moments such as blocking or swinging the weapon. Thes burst could also be used to activate the item's enchantments at that moment. Using the skill optimized for blacksmithing in a battle had taken a lot of time and effort to get used to.

A change appeared starting from level 5. When used on the weapon it would not only strengthen it but also apply something like an energy blade to the weapon. This made the skill once again harder to control. It took Seth several weeks to get used to it, but he came to like this new feature.

Tored had stimulated his imagination when he told him, that <Energy Circulation> was the skill that allowed combat classes to shoot energy attacks from their blades. Seth was motivated to increase the skills level, even if he needed a much higher skill level to do the same thing, he would be like those protagonists from martial arts novels. Using sword qi and posing as some immortal sword master really tickled his fancy.

He often trained alone until deep into the night to get a feeling for the energy blade.

During the aforementioned sparring with Tored, Seth watched Tored launch a transparent energy blade at him using his ax. he dodged it and, after gaining some insight from the dwarf's attack, tried to imitate him.

<Ding! Skill: Energy Circulation lv.6 has become Energy Circulation lv.7!>

The new insight he gained from the skill gave him a weird idea. The next moment a panicked dwarf jumped out of the way of a quickly approaching wave of pale fire.

<Ding! Skill: Weapon Mastery (Adept) lv.9 has become Weapon Mastery (Adept) lv.10!>

<Ding! Skill: Weapon Mastery (Adept) lv.10 has become Weapon Mastery (Expert) lv.1!>

<Ding! Ability: Fire Manipulation lv.9 has become Fire Manipulation lv.10!>

<Ding! Passive Skill: Fire Affection lv.4 has become Fire Affection lv.5!>

<Ding! Ability: Fire Manipulation lv.10 has become Pyrokinesis lv.1!>

Seth had simply tried to combine the principle of <Energy Manipulation> and his ability to control fire. It triggered a terrible headache and flood of messages as skills that were previously stuck leveled and ranked up like a falling row of dominoes.

<Weapon Mastery> had ranked up to the expert- rank, which was a rank exclusive to secondary skills. It bridged over the journeyman- and craftsman- rank a primary skill had. So the next rank of <Weapon Mastery> would be master!

"What the hell was that!?" the grumpy dwarf shouted. Tored was still patting his beard that was slightly singed by Seth's little experiment.

"I simply tried to use my <Fire Manipulation> similar to how <Energy Manipulation> works. Guess it worked better than expected?" he said massaging his temples.

"But your circulation skill is only lv.6. how did it get so big?"

"7, it just leveled up. Probably because it´s an ability and not bound to my mana? In exchange, it took a lot of mental energy and gave me a massive headache. So please don't talk so loud."

"hmm, I see. Then you will have to learn how to control that in the future."

And like this, another lesson was added to his daily routine that would cause him to go to bed with terrible headaches for a week or two.

The functions <Pyrokinesis> were not much different from <Fire manipulation>. Technically those were synonyms! His control over fire became a lot more instinctive and smoother with the rank-up. The cost of normal usage also lessened, while the precision increased. The rank-up helped a lot in adapting to using it in conjunction with <Energy Manipulation>.

Seth could only tremble at the thought, that he might have taken months to adjust the output during training. This would have been months of sleepless nights, tortured by splitting headaches. With <Pyrokinesis> he got the hang of how much he could use without side effects after two weeks.

The first night without a headache felt like heaven and Seth learned just how blessed one was, to be able to get a good night's sleep. Now, he cursed himself for not sleeping more in the past. Wasting his time on games, when sleeping and eating were the true pinnacles of life!

But he really enjoyed pulling all-nighters to play a game or read a good story, so he forgave himself.

At least the result of this terrible training was worth it... more or less. He could not really fire off impressive energy blades or flame waves without incapacitating himself at the moment. Instead, he could use this method to cover a sword in a very thin and sharp layer of pale blue almost white flame. This cost Seth a lot less, than directly using his ability to cover the weapon and the visual effect was very cool. Similar to a lightsaber, the weapon would leave a trail of light, heat, and fire.

What was to be expected, was that this application was a lot more powerful in the smithy. When forging he could use it to control the heat of his workpiece. He could keep the temperature of the material constant for a longer period of time and did not have to return as often to the forge.

For common and some uncommon materials, he only needed to heat them up once in the forge and then he could keep working them on the anvil until he was done. It not only saved time but also helped in training his fire-related skills and the <Energy Circulation>.

His other skills also came along well as Seth had already reached lv.3 in <Goldsmith (Adept)> and <Enchantment (Adept)>. He kept spending a lot of time and money on the materials he needed for Tored's tasks.

Fortunately, he was also able to make back several times the money, with the newly set up shop. Despite the current situation in Ora and the lesser frequented location business was doing well. Seth's reputation was good and the fact that he was working under one of the cities 3 Masters brought in many visitors through word of mouth. Despite spending money like crazy, it came back in even faster than he could spend it.

Of course, while Seth was sweating blood and tears, he made sure not to be alone. Whenever Seth was forging or sparring, Puffles was not far away cranking out <Celestial Bronze>. With the speed after his evolution, Seth was sure there would be enough thread for a new gambeson from Nädel!

As he got more and more used to fighting and skillfully using the soul fire, he felt the urge to return to the dungeons. He was more than fed up with quests and fighting after what happened with the B-Rank exam. That was back then. Several weeks of peaceful and exhausting training had recharged his adventure batteries.

He needed some change! Seth wanted to see the fruits of his training. Also, he was lv.24 with only about 50% to go. There were more system privileges waiting and maybe he would unlock another class skill? He had been thinking about this for a long time now and it was driving him crazy. Tored also would not tell him about the system privileges.

To sum it up, the increase in fighting power, was the perfect excuse to run away from training and level up to see what lv.25 would bring!