Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Seth, can we talk?" he met Lynri at the canteen on his way to meet Link.

"Hi, Lynri. How have you been so far?"

Seth had not much time to check on her, after their return. Since she approached him herself, he would take his time to listen to her.

"Thanks for asking. Life in Minas Mar is great. The food is delicious, the people are nice but..." she paused as if unsure how to continue.

"You can tell me if there is something bothering you."

They both sat down at the table where Lynri had previously been sitting.

"It's about what I told you back then, do you remember? I want to help. I don't just want to live off your money." she told him determinedly.

Seth vividly remembered the light that had shown in her eyes, back then when she made this decision.

"I visited the System Church the day before yesterday with Simon. I have joined the system and even managed to get a rare class "Priestess of the Fount". But I couldn't get hold of anyone that could give me a task. I know everyone has been busy, that's why I tried to wait at first. Then I realized that isn't the right way. I wish to become stronger and help you, however small that help may be. Th-that's why I suddenly called out to you." a flood of words flowed from her mouth.

It seemed like this topic had gnawed at her for some time. Once again, he realized that he was not very good at dealing with human relationships. He apologized a lot lately.

On another note, her situation was quite tricky. It was true that Minas Mar had nothing like a rookie program. Their focus had been on trustworthy and talented people. Those that joined Minas Mar after the tournament had already been above level 20 and they increased their level past 40 since then.

There were simply no people in Minas Mar that were within her level range. Technically, this was good, since they could just give her a bus ride to a higher level.

However, she was a priestess, a healer, and a supporter. She wouldn't be able to raise her skill proficiencies in a party that just laid waste to a dungeon.

Lynri also wasn't an ori huma, which was a disadvantage. In the end, Seth came up with three options.

"I believe there are three options for you to gain strength. The first would be that you enter our Medical Wing and gain skill proficiency there while we raise your level slowly. This would be a very safe method, but it could hamper your potential.

The other would be that you try to join the System Church. You would probably get professional training and a blessing like Mina and the others that could even out the disadvantage in stats. But I have no knowledge of what exactly joining the church as normal person entrails.

The last option would be to travel to a different world and grow there before you return. I have some acquaintances that could take care of you there. It is probably the most dangerous choice, and you would have to leave Minas Mar for an extended period of time. But you would be free to grow and experience that world."

Seth gave her these choices, that were uncannily similar to those he had faced himself just over a year ago. A year, that felt like a lifetime. Lynri had gone silent, thinking about what Seth had said.

"Take your time. The choice is all yours." with that Seth excused himself to look for Link.

"Oh, you finally came." Link said when Seth found him cooking in the kitchen. There were almost a dozen pots cooking with different fluids and sauces.

"I came as fast as I could. What are you cooking?" the blacksmith asked, looking at the pots with interest.

"I'm experimenting with the snake meat. It is rare grade meat and a lot of it, but it is hard to make it into a delicious and potent meal. It will take some time to perfect a dish with it." he answered while preparing another pot.

"Good thing you have more than enough to experiment with it, right?"

"True. Did you really defeat that swamp dragon? I almost broke something when I fell off the corpse while taking it apart."

"To be fair, I didn't fight it fair and square."

"Figures. Okay, I'm finished here. This stuff has to cook for a while. Let's go, I put all the stuff in the storage rooms."

They ported to the big dismantling room and walked to the adjacent storage rooms. They were filled to the ceiling with boxes that held all the bones, leather, and other materials from the apes and snakes Seth had given him.

"The foodstuff is already in the kitchen storage and Alison came earlier to get everything useful for alchemy. This is everything fit for blacksmithing and enchanting."

Seth was overwhelmed. There were so many boxed, that he had already given up on the thought of putting it in his inventory. Instead, he asked the tower to teleport all the boxes directly to his workshop.

"Thank you, Link."

"Don't worry about it. I have to thank you, for all the ingredients," he answered with a smile.

Now that Seth had the materials from the snakes, there was one other thing he wanted to do before he started planning his own equipment and experimenting with vessels. It was something, only he could do.

Take apart the body of Chrysopras. As it was formed from metals and minerals, this was not the job of a hunter, but that of a miner. He was the only miner in Minas Mar.

But at the thought of his previous pickaxe taking so much damage from the stone giant's outer shell, he felt it was necessary to craft a new pickaxe first.

Thanks to his increased training with singing, he could now even perform normal ballads to some degree. That was why he chose a song he had learned when he started learning with Tored. Like when he forged the angel, this was a dwarven ballad. It could specifically strengthen the damage against stone and was used on tools for mining and masonry.

The material he used was the incredibly hard and durable <Adamantium> he had looted at the Theocracy's Stronghold.

For the enchantments, he could finally test out the new perks that came with the craftsman tier. The craftsman tier allowed for the combination and simplification of all previously learned formations. This meant Seth could now link circuits and enchant an item with up to four different effects.

It also unlocked the use of more abstract and profound effects, like the space arrays he had learned from Al'Zalsar.

In this case, Seth layered the effects of strength enhancement and the pierce enchantment, usually used on weapons. When he thought of the pierce enchantment, he thought of something and checked his enchantment catalog.

With his <Enchantment> on level 3, he had also unlocked more divine enchantments. However, what he was looking for was an enchantment he had unlocked with lv. 2. It was called "Speer of Iapetos".

The description just gave a vague introduction to Iapetos himself, one of the titans and brothers of Cronos, who helped pin down Ouranos during his "dismemberment". But the name implied that it had a piercing effect.

Although Seth had already added enchantments, he could not resist testing it out. At worst, he would lose a few hours of work. It was no big deal, compared to the possible gain.

The blacksmith chose one of the big ape souls he had collected from the carnage the Pseudo-Swamp Dragon had caused. They were just uncommon, but their size was quite good. Apes, especially big ones, often belonged to the earth attribute, it was no different for these souls.

After forging the soul into the shape of the pickaxe, he stretched himself and took a deep breath to get in the right mindset before he started engraving the divine sigil onto it, which looked like a spear piercing the heavens.

<Iapetos' Spirit Pickaxe

Unique

1. +15% Affinity to Earth

2. Active Skill: Piercing Strike

3. Active Skill: Armor Break

A soul tool imbued with the power of the Titan Iapetos, the Piercer. >

The names of these skills were not very phenomenal until one saw their effects.

<Active Skill: Piercing Strike, No Cost, Cooldown: 1 min

Ignore the opponent's armor and deal 200% true damage to the target. >

< Active Skill: Armor Break, No Cost, Cooldown: 1min

On next strike: Deal 150% additional damage directly to the opponent's armor

>

When Seth started strengthening the soul tool and saw the other options that appeared, it became clear that he would not keep this pickaxe forever. They were too good, to not put them on a spear. After adding 15 medium souls, the options stopped changing for the most part.

Seth suspected, that if he put in enough souls or bigger souls, there would be more changes. However, this was sufficient for a pickaxe he did not plan on keeping.

<Ding! A synergy has strengthened Piercing Strike>

<Iapetos' Pickaxe

Unique

Damage: 1400

Durability: 4200

1. +15% Affinity to Earth

2. Repairs itself for 5% of dealt damage.

3. +50% Additional Damage on Stone

4. Active Skill: Piercing Strike

5. Active Skill: Armor Break

6. + 25% Damage to target Durability

7. 10% of target armor is ignored.

8. +90 Strength

A pickaxe imbued with the power of the Titan Iapetos, the Piercer. It is questionable whether the maker, Craftsman Smith, should be proud or ashamed of this work. One thing is for sure, any Miner would kill to own this tool.

Once rumors of the pickaxes power spread or it plays a role in the users ascend to a legend, the item might become legendary. >