Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth's actions had some repercussions, but none he was really afraid of. Since there were not really any people around when the blacksmith enacted his own justice, there were only rumors about a conflict between the guilds.

People doubted the fairness of the compensation, especially the members of the Nelgiv guild who had to hand back the items. Yes, there were some badly beaten members and the Nelgiv guild master was missing an arm... But that was all. Nobody could do anything as the parties involved denied anything happening.

Although their reputation took a light hit, it quickly paled in the face of other news. Delta was currently in chaos as constantly news kept surfacing. Whether it was a new champion rising to fame, a change in the leaderboards, or information from the expedition teams and settlers. Nobody had time to get hung up on something small as an (officially) non-violent conflict between guilds.

Among the news was also praise for Minas Mar, which kept flowing back from the first expedition team sent to Tree Station 1. With Karina actively helping, their endeavor to install facilities and infrastructure was quickly progressing. The second group of Settlers was already prepared to set off soon.

The quicker, the better. Although the incidents among the refugees from Sigma had decreased thanks to the heightened presence of guards, the Divine Strength Drug and disappearances were still a problem.

Seth didn't know whether the churches fishing in these troubled water were a curse or a blessing. Like Minas Mar, which offered people a way out of the city, many religions could offer solace for the victims of the divine strength drug and they kept collecting lay members.

With Mary skillfully managing the public perspective of the incident, it, unfortunately, did not have the effect Seth would have liked. He had wanted to make an example of the Nelgiv Guild, for others not to mess with Minas Mar, but Mary had completely diffused his message. Who knew when one of these growing forces picked a fight with them?

"Don't worry. For most of these higher-ups it is pretty obvious what happened, even when the official version looks different," Mary had assured him when he voiced doubts.

She was right, the clever ones with a good head would probably know, and it was good that these more bothersome people would think twice... but what about the idiots who didn't think even once? The blacksmith had seen enough brutes among adventurers to know, that one should never bet on the intelligence of the opponent. At his request, they put a few more of the Oathguards with relic-rated sets at the shops, just in case.

The first thing Seth did after stamping the 10 magic rings he had made was hand them out quickly. The reason was the small addition to the ring's flavor text after he used the punch on them.

As he was checking the effects of the seal, he found that there was an additional sentence in the flavor text. Like with the relic-rated armors, it stated that there was a minuscule chance for the rings to reach the myth-rank.

The blacksmith didn't really know what exactly constituted the myth-rank, he barely had an idea of the legendary rank. Since the system blocked Al from explaining, he could only make assumptions based off the item descriptions of relic items and Al'Zalsar's Soul.

Becoming a legend was definitely a qualitative change in power, no matter whether it was a player, an item, or a material. It also had something to do with accumulation, otherwise, the sorceress couldn't be "close" to becoming a legend.

Based on that he guessed that for an item to rise in rank, it had to be used, which was why he handed them out, so they could start using them as soon as possible. There were only two weeks left, they would need time to get used to the items.

Exactly this time frame, gave Seth heartache. Over the past months, Seth had tried to get used to making items thoroughly and methodically instead of using the power of his crafting stations to rush them.

With so little time left, he saw himself forced to quicken his progress. He started off with Mike's Helmet. Like most lords, he was attached to the items Seth had previously made for him, so decided to make him a helmet, which he was still lacking. The divine enchantment he chose was a major influence on the design of the helmet for the beastman.

Starting with the <Olympian Silver>, he chose a basic helmet shape similar to his own to give the sword demon a good field of vision and maneuverability. Now the biggest problem for beastmen when it came to helmets was the ears.

Now he couldn't just leave holes for the ears, instead, he attached ram-like horns. They were the epic-rated horn of a boss monster called Idoram, Monique's team had hunted a while ago. The horns gave the helmet a barbaric and aggressive flair.

This wasn't necessarily Seth's style, but it would fit better with the divine enchantment, the Blessing of Krios. Krios, the titan of the southern sky. The best he could find about this titan was that he had a connection to rams, which was why he made the item a ram helmet. As he saw it fitting, he asked Neeco to make the inner lining of the helmet from <Sky Silk>.

Since Mike's secondary class was Focus Warrior, the blacksmith didn't even bother with a lot of other enchantments and went full ham on Willpower. Even the forging ballad was chosen with this in mind.

Coincidentally, Seth had managed to get the soul of a Creedoram, a creature similar to an Idoram and known for its terrible stubbornness. Another form of willpower. The soul was only rare but of massive size. The blacksmith found that he had chosen correctly when he felt the presence of Krios for the first time.

Krios felt like a tower of strength, like a warrior and a guardian of iron will. It fit very well with Mike's attributes. Soon the notifications rang.

<Ding! You have finished a legendary item! +1 to all attributes.>

<Ding! Several synergies of powers have changed your item.>

<Ding! A synergy between materials has changed your item.>

<Helmet of Krios

Legendary

Phys. Def.:2500

Mag: Def:2400

Phys.Dmg: 800

Durability: 9000

1. Blessing of Wind

2. Gift of Orias

3. Stubborn

4. Blessing of the Southern Sky

5.+150 Willpower

6. Passive Skill: Predator

7. Passive Skill: Krios' Strength 8. Passive Skill: Butting Heads 9. Active Skill: Ram Charge

A mighty offensive Helmet with a peculiar design by the hands of Craftsman Smith, enchanted by the first Master Enchanter of Urth, Master Smith using divine, demonic and mysterious means. A piece of equipment that strongly discourages anyone in the know from arguments with the wearer.>

Seth almost laughed when he saw the third option, however, the laugh got stuck in his throat when he saw the effect of Stubborn.

<Stubborn: The wearer is incorrigibly stubborn. Mental Crowd Control effects such as: Stun, Fear, Sleep, Confusion, Charm.....are severely weakened and can not last longer than 10 seconds.

Physical Crowd Control Effects such as: Snare, Bind, Root.... are slightly weakened. >

Even if this wasn't the kind of offensive the description meant, Seth felt offended by how strong this effect was. 10 seconds were long in a fight, but the point was that these effects would be severely weakened.

With a high willpower stat and this effect, this was technically like an immunity against all weaker effects. And 10 seconds was nothing when it meant that it could even neutralize the effects of something vastly more powerful.

The Gift of Orias and the passive skill <Predator> were the effect of Seth's demonic ballad. While the first majorly improved the state of mind, the second slightly improved all stats when on a "hunt" and gave the wearer the aura of a predator, which could intimidate weaker enemies.

Blessing of the Southern Sky was a conditional improvement of Attributes, like that of the sky robe. When under the open sky, all attributes would increase by 10%, while they would rise by 15% when the sun was in the southern sky.

It seemed that the blessing of Krios had influenced most of the effects, but only the passive skill Krios' Strength had his name. The skill improved the wearer's physical damage and mental power by another 20%.

The last two skills had to be a mix of Krios, the horns, and the soul he used.

< Passive Skill: Butting Heads

Headbutts deal 300% more damage.>

<Active Skill: Ram Charge, No Cost, Cooldown: 5 minutes,

"You can build walls in my path, I will simply walk through them."

Get your horns aligned and charge in a straight line at your target with 3 times your usual movement speed.

You will deal 5 times your physical damage as a headbutt to anything in your way.>