Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

It was decided that the exam for Minas Mar would be managed by a joint initiative of Minas Mar and the Adventurer Guild. The Vice-Master had offered them a way to make it a great festivity. In exchange, they would split the proceeds.

Seth wasn't really involved in the preparations for the exam. On one hand, he wanted to be entertained himself and on the other, he had better things to do.

Back in his smithy, he started working on Mina's accessories. The first item was a ring. He used a small part of epic-rated <Demonic Gold>. This was the product of rare -rated <Arcane Gold> being forged with the feasting ballad and left to absorb blood.

The material was more durable than <Arcane Gold> and could use blood and miasma to recover its mana storage faster. The forging ballad he used for the simple band of reddish-gold was a short ode devoted to Malphara.

Malphara was a shadow demoness that found great joy in deceit and hidden death. She granted the effect of lowering one's presence and even obscuring the wearer from the view of others. The price was that she would be able to view the wearer during battles.

She could grant even greater effects if she liked the wearer. But the effects could also be lowered if she didn't like the wearer's actions. On the ring, Seth put the complex circuit for hiding one's presence to strengthen the ballad's effects. The item was too small to fit a second enchantment.

For the soul armament, Seth used the rare soul of an Elite Wraith he got as a drop from an undead dungeon. As much as he would have liked to harvest all these powerful souls, something kept preventing him from doing so in the dungeon.

Even Al had no idea why he was prevented from forcefully ripping souls out of dungeon mobs, but she conjectured that it might be divine intervention. As a result, Seth could only hunt for the souls of invaders from other worlds.

After some of Al's tinkering, they were able to spot the pathwork portals within the Tower's range of influence and teleport there. The bigger problem was that these souls were not always useful, and it was hard to pass up the right moment to harvest them before the target died.

Seth only had a few good souls from these excursions and he decided to distribute those he didn't need among his followers.

This was also the first serious test for the ink Alison had developed. An ink using the crushed nucleus of high-ranked undead. He had made sure that this one was made of the remains of the same wraith.

At this point, the fact that size didn't matter for souls came in handy. After forging the soul into a ring, he could increase its perceived size and etch the runes onto it without any problems the same way he had done it with circuits.

The epic he inscribed was quite long and was also devoted to Malphara. But this one concentrated on her ability to grant invisibility. The price was the same as the forging ballad. His plan was to get two effects at the price of one.

The experimental ink he had gotten from Alison worked similarly to the traditional ones. the only difference was that instead of forming a darker enamel on the metal the runes looked more like they were seared into the soul like a cauterized wound.

It also took slightly more energy to infuse such armaments into the items, but it worked! As long as he described the results to Alison, and she kept researching, they would be able to make perfectly functional inks in the future.

He dipped the small accessory into the water barrel and wasn't surprised at the synergy with his trait. This was what he had aimed for!

<Ring of Gyges

Relic

Durability: 790

1. +5-15% Mana Regeneration

2. Wearer's presence his lowered by 55%

3. Wearer's opacity is lowered by 55%

4. Active Skill: Invisibility

5. Active Skill: Intangibility

6.+700 Mana

The rendition of a legendary Ring that can grant the Wearer absolute invisibility made by Journeyman Smith with the assistance of Demoness Malphara. She will observe the wearer's actions when the ring is worn. Corresponding to her judgment the effects may lower or increase.

Once rumors of the ring's effects spread or it plays a role in the user's ascend to a legend, the item might become legendary.

>

With the assistance? So, he had actually drawn the attention of a demon... Looking at the skills, he saw why it was called a rendition. The Ring of Gyges granted perfect invisibility for an undetermined amount of time. Invisibility had its limits.

<Invisibility, Cost: None, Cooldown: 30 minutes

Grants Invisibility for a duration of 30 seconds. The effect is lost when the user enters combat.

Skill is activated by turning the ring to the left.>

But 30 seconds were enough to change the outcome of a battle. On top of that, there was another skill. It was probably because of the souls and ink he had used.

<Intangibility, Cost: 700 mana, Cooldown: 1h

Grants Intangibility for a duration of 1 minute. The effect is lost when the user enters combat.

Skill is activated by turning the ring to the right.>

Technically turning into a ghost for a minute. If the two effects were stacked Mina could run through a battlefield without being seen or touched. But even without the skills, having her presence and opacity decreased by 55% was an overpowered effect for a shadow assassin/shadow mage like her.

One ring to kill or escape them all he thought sinisterly.

The rest of her accessories were less spectacular as Seth lacked any good ballads to power them up. Instead, he went with quantity. He used <Fey Steel> to make a ring, a pendant, and an earring. With the uncommon souls from the glowpeople he pumped up with 20 of the common medium souls.

<Magician's Ring

Epic Arcane-Set 1/3

Epic

Durability: 800

1.+20% Mana Regeneration

2. +70 INT

3. +20% Chance for a random Curse to be added to a magic attack.

4. +250 Mana

Set Effect:

+45% Mana Cost Reduction

+30% Chant Reduction

+35% Mana Regeneration

An epic ring created by Journeyman Smith, as part of a set that would any magician salivate over. Its performance is by unknown methods.>

All the set pieces had the same effects. This was the best Seth could do for now, as he had only 3 of these big souls left. Mina was not even a caster, but this set would work just fine until Seth could make her even better stuff.

And at that point, they could give this set to one of the non-lord members of Minas Mar.

Since Neeco was working on Minas Armor he could finish her gear today. He looked at the clock and decided that this was enough for the day. He packed the jewelry into a small chest and put it in his inventory.

As cool as it was to have a private vault, he preferred having these epic and relic gears in his inventory. Who knew if- No, no, he would set a flag for this kind of event.

"Seth!" his girlfriend tackled him as he entered the cafeteria.

"You are back?" Seth asked and embraced her tightly.

Mina and the others of "Yulecat's Fur" had been inside a dungeon for the last three days

"Ah, hey! I didn't get to wash up yet. Don't hug me too tightly. You might get dirty."

"I don't mind. We can wash up together then."

"Humph! Could you guys ... do that somewhere else?" Mike asked embarrassed. Even if the two were lovers, Mina was still his sister.

"Pff, sorry."

"Fin is here too! Don't ignore Fin!" the fairy who had her entry stolen by the catgirl complained with pouting cheeks.

It became a happy reunion. They ate together before Seth and Mina vanished to their private quarter to wash up together.