Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

When Seth started working with the materials the merchant brought him, he found some more problems than he expected. The <Sea Iron> did not just become mediocre <Bones of Seth>, it was outright rejected by the ritual.

As for the <Scur Ore>, he first had to refine the ore into iron, before he could use it in the ritual to imbue it with the powers of the god of chaos. This was where the problem started. Refining normal iron from ore was already not the easiest thing.

Even with magic fire, he needed the right amounts of coal to reduce the ore into pure metal. It became marginally harder to refine magic ore. One needed to either know the recipe or grasp the fundamental science behind it.

Even with the recipe and the appropriate reagents for the process, it was stressful to refine an epic material, when one lacked a divine recipe. From the 10 kg of ore, he only managed to refine 3 kg of <Scur Iron> which then turned into 1kg of special grade <Bones of Seth>.

<Bones of Seth, Special

A metal created with the power of the Heliopolian god of chaos, Seth. It holds strong affinities to the power of chaos, destruction, and darkness.>

Seth slowly got an idea of what the special attribute meant when he started refining the <Gale Silver>. The blacksmith was not sure what kind of effect it would have when he used the method of Hephaestus to refine silver with a high affinity to wind.

The effects were... almost overwhelming. As the method involved purifying the silver with strong fire energy, the metal almost exploded in his face, when the two energies met each other. Unlike before, when Seth didn't have to do much aside from controlling the flow of the energy, he now had to minutely control it as it mixed with the inherent wind energy in the silver.

Despite the problems in the beginning, the process went a lot smoother than the <Scur Iron>, and he finally got the notification he had been waiting for.

<Ding! You have refined a legendary material!>

From the 50kg <Gale Silver> he refined 27 kg of legendary <Olympian Silver>. There were actually two things he learned from this. One, there was quite a bit of loss when refining legendary materials.

The second thing he came up with was a theory pertaining to special and legendary materials. The difference between the <Bones of Seth> and the <Olympian Silver> was the intervention of a god. One could only be created with divine powers, while the other was the result of the work of a mortal.

Seth didn't know why these two were differentiated, but he doubted that there was a difference in their resulting power. What got him thinking, was the fact that he had met other deities. There were more gods than legendary beasts and ores around.

Maybe it was worth a thought to try and deepen his relationship with religions. If any deity or god could bless a material with their power, to the point that it rivaled the legendary rank... this might be the easier option to get his hands on fitting crafting materials.

…

"Seth, Seth! Do you want to come to watch Fin's fight?" Fin suddenly came over to him, during his lunch break. The fairy was flying around him excitedly.

"Your fight?" he asked surprised. Someone had the gall to challenge the little brute?

"Hihi, yes. It's the 6th ranked guy on the brawler leaderboard. For some reason he thinks Fin is higher ranked and he can beat Fin," she chuckled happily.

Seth could understand the little brutes' sentiment. Fin had been peeved about the fact, that she didn't get any announcement about her ranked, which in her mind meant she was ranked too low to get on the leaderboard.

The blacksmith's guess had more to do with the fact that she had two unique classes that were probably hard to classify for the leaderboards.

Although they had decided to keep the ranks they had a secret from the public, Fin couldn't help but feel like the system underestimated her. Even if she couldn't get on the leaderboard for whatever reason, if she could beat up the 6th ranked of the brawler category in public it would soothe her indignation.

Brawlers were more or less unarmed melee fighters. Technically, it wasn't wrong to expect Fin to be part of this leaderboard. As she accepted the challenge, there would be an official, public duel in the arena of Delta, as per the rules announced by Delta's government.

According to the system church, it was enough for one of the contestants to accept defeat, or be judged as defeated by the system. Contests did not have to be deadly, to change their leaderboard rankings.

Despite Fin not gaining anything from such a fight, Seth didn't have the heart to tell her not to do it. She was very excited to prove her power to the world, even when the leaderboards didn't accept her. And she had most likely already accepted the duel, there was no pulling back in that case.

"Sure, if you really want to do this, I will come. When is the duel going to be?"

"In an hour!"

"Wait, what? And you only tell me now?"

"Well, things developed quicker than Fin expected."

She shrugged before finally landing on the table and stealing a piece of meat from his plate. He didn't have a chance to say anything when she already started munching on it with big cheeks, like a hamster.

"Fine, let's eat quickly and leave."

After the meal, they went to the stadium, where they had once held the tournament for the members of the Oathguard. It was now repurposed to become the PVP arena for official challenges. With the cooperation of the system church, it became the holy ground for ranking matches.

However, only the martial matches were open for the public to see. In part, this was also because the few craftsmen in Delta had spoken against showing their skills publicly. As challenges among the crafting classes were a contest of pure skill, it came close to revealing trade secrets at this point in time, if their duels were held publicly.

Seth and the other people from Minas Mar who had tagged along, such as Mina, Monique, Mike, Lydia, and co. About half of the lords were present to watch Fin beat somebody up.

At the referee's signal, the contestants came into the arena and were introduced.

"On the challenger's side, we have Bartoli, the Fist King of the Radon Guild, Ranked 6th among the Brawlers. On the opposing side we have Fin, the Menace from Minas Mar, rank currently unknown."

"The Menace? Where did she get that kind of Nickname?" Seth thought confused. "And why does it sound like a movie title?"

<Ding! System Announcement: The Official Ranking Match between the 6th ranked Player on the brawler leaderboard "Bartoli Benning" and the unranked Player "Fin Bellsmiter"will now commence.>

Seth had heard about this, but it was his first time experiencing it. It was the proof that these matches were sanctioned by the system god. Those watching the official matches in person would get to hear a system notification of the names and ranks of the participants.

A murmur went through the crowd. The words "Bellsmiter", "Benning", and most prominently "unranked" could be heard often among the people. It was also Seth's first time hearing, that Fin was actually unranked.

Looking at Fin, Seth got a bad feeling. There were a few possibilities why Fin was unranked, but one thing was clear, she really didn't like it being called out publicly. He just looked over to the tiny point in the arena that was Fin, when a sparking streak of light was already shooting toward her opponent.

Even if there was no rank to gain for her, Seth feared Bartoli would experience the beating of his life as Fin used him to work off her discontent on him.

To his surprise, Bartoli was not to be underestimated. Although it was hard to see the tiny figure of Fin, the sound of collision and sparks on Bartoli's arm guards showed that he managed to block at least some of her attack.

This didn't change the fact that he was constantly twisting, turning, and retreating. He didn't have the leisure to do anything but block and evade when facing the flurry of tiny punches pelting him. She didn't even use the skills of her item.

A sudden roar echoed through the arena as a shock wave emanated from Bartoli and a red aura enveloped him. His power had increased tremendously and he went on the offense. Seth looked confused for a moment when Mina beside him explained.

"That's Brawler's Rush. A basic skill of the street fighter class. It halves their defense and doubled their attack for a short time. A kind of suicide rush, so to say."

However, instead of giving him the edge and reversing the situation, Bartoli suddenly faced the blinding glare of royal dignity, as a shining crown appeared on the tiny Fin. The rushing Bartoli had his breath instantly taken away, by a punch that literally cave his face in. His Nose was broken. His front teeth stayed where they were, while the rest of his body was violently catapulted to the other side of the arena.

This was Fin's corresponding self-buff from her Melee Queen class. Seth had seen it once or twice during recent dungeon dives. She had learned it when her <Unarmed Fighting> reached the master level not too long ago. Her trump card ended the fight in a single hit.

<Ding! Participant Benning can no longer continue the fight. Winner: Fin Bellsmiter.>

<Ding! Fin Bellsmiter has climbed to Rank 6 of the Brawler leaderboard.>