Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

An ego? Where did the ego come from? Was the notification this time a little different? He could vaguely remember it saying something about an ego, but he was to preoccupied with not leveling up to the master tier.

Checking the options, he found what was the cause for the change. Instead of gaining the blessing of A'petit as planned, the power of the demon and the soul armament had given birth to an ego called the Appetite Demon, which seemed like a weaker clone of A'petit, the Gourmet Demon.

The functions of improving damage to ingredients and improving their quality had not changed, but was an option with a level attached to it, which meant it could grow! Seth tried to communicate with the chef knife, but there was no answer to his telepathic questions. Maybe it was a dormant ego? Or maybe its level was still to low to do anything but grant the basic effects.

Seth had not planned for this, but he found it quite fitting, that the Gourmet hunter would now have an Appetite Demon to grow. The other options were as expected. Purification would be able to get rid of weak and medium toxins in the material it cut and self-cleaning made sure it was always sterile.

The passive skill <Innate Blade Talent> improved the power and proficiency gain for skills that had the wielding of a knife or dagger at their core. Seth was not 100% sure but he was of the opinion that Link did have the <Dagger Mastery> skill. Whether this passive also counted for anything cooking-related, he had no idea.

The description of Olympian Sharpness was quite simple. When supplied with mana, it would create a mana edge that could exponentially increase the cutting power of the knife, to the point of "cutting any material, lesser than the material of the knife, like butter".

Testing the mana edge a little made him aware of a big problem. He had just tested a little and cut a use gash in one of his work benches. With this kind of power, Link would split his kitchen counter like a woodcutter firewood. He would need to make a fitting cutting board if the gourmet hunter was supposed to use it in the kitchen.

But that would have to wait for tomorrow. It was close to midnight now and Seth was way too tired to still make something like a cutting board now. Putting the knife away in his inventory, he cleaned up his tools and returned to his quarters where he found the already sleeping Mina on the couch.

He turned off the TV and carried her to bed, before washing up and joining her for the night.

"I tried waiting for you," Mina mumbled drowsily when he returned.

"I'm here now."

…

<Ding! Skill: Blacksmith(Craftsman) lv.9 has become Blacksmith(Master) lv.1!>

<Ding! Title: "Master Blacksmith" gained. "You have reached the Master-tier in <Blacksmith>" +10 Strength, Unlocked Function: Blacksmith Mark.>

<Ding! Title: "The First 3" gained. "You are the first player to become a "Master Blacksmith" on this Server." Every Item description of every item you made so far will be retroactively edited to include this title and your achievement.>

The blacksmith held his final work as a craftsman in his hand and raised it to the heavens to appraise his the result of his work. With the size of one by a half of an arm's length and mystic engravings, it was a great silver tablet- no, a legendary cutting board.

<Durable Cutting Board

Legendary

Phys. Def: 3000

Durability: 15000

1. Olympian Durability

2. Self-repair

A cutting board with little going for it, but its high durability. It is surprising that this stems from the hands of Master Smith the first Master Blacksmith and Master Enchanter of Urth.>

He had surrendered to his destiny and used the cutting board for his final jump to the master tier. It was a thin, even sheet of legendary <Olympian Silver>, embedded into a block of <Artificial Adamantium> to bulk it up a little.

The blacksmith had not given it a soul, the only effects were the enchantment of Olympian Durability, which almost doubled the basic durability, and Self-repair which was the result of the Blood Drinker ballad, without any additional enchantment.

The cutting board could absorb blood and repair itself. As a legendary material, there was little some blood could do to strengthen the material, which was the most likely reason it had no self-strengthening option.

The main purpose of the board was to act as a pair with the Gourmet Knife. Aside from use in the kitchen, it was relatively useless. Well, maybe Link could block an attack with it, if he was really desperate.

Seth sighed and unceremoniously threw it in his inventory when a sudden light emanated from his chest. The spot was hot and there was the familiar feeling of sucking energy from his body. Just like the first time, it felt good and came with a sense of euphoria.

This was the formation of his blacksmith's mark. Just like during the formation of the Punch, a black, not golden, stamp slowly emerged from his chest. Unlike the punch, it was a rectangular, roughly 30cm long metal bar with similarities to a chisel, with a small negative of the mark at the tip.

His personal mark. Using this stamp created by the system he could mark would have the same effects as the punch, making it recognizable for anyone with eyes, and imbuing older items with the passive buffs they would have gotten if he had been a master at the time of their creation.

Testing his new stamp, he found that it was similar to the goldsmith's punch. Where the punch showed a hammer in a halo of flames, the mark showed an anvil in a halo of flames. Again, the design choice seemed very simple, but he came to like it more than expected.

At a loss, Seth stared at the three skills that now had reached the master-tier, and at the other skills that had now the master tag behind them, like <Soul Forging> and <Blueprints>. It had been a short-term goal for him to strive for, but now that he reached it he realized... nothing had really changed.

He expected something big to happen, but there wasn't really anything. He still had things to make and his everyday life wasn't going to change because of this. This wasn't to say that there were no gains at all.

The Blacksmith's Mark had formed in a similar way as the goldsmith's punch. He could use it to copyright all his works and even improve older ones. There were also more blueprints that had been unlocked.

Just like when he reached the master tier in <Enchantment>, his <Blueprints> now also showed some more <Olympian Blueprints>, all dubbed "Basic Olympian this and that".In general, <Blueprints> now showed more advanced schematics that involved his rank in all three, <Blacksmith>, <Goldsmith>, and <Enchantment>.

The most prominent of those were magic armor sets, among which was also one for Basic Olympian Armor. In general, there were three ways for a blacksmith to create set items. The most important was that all pieces needed some sort of connection that led to an overall improvement or a special effect.

One such way was Cohesion of Design, where the design itself led to an improvement of effects if worn together. The Dark Knight Armor the dwarf master Tored had once gifted Seth was a good example. It had an intimidation effect against others if all parts were worn together.

The second was a Cohesion of Materials, especially when a blacksmith used a lot of special monster parts. Monster materials often had specific traits they retained even after. The better the quality and the more of the material of the same monster, or type of monster was used, the bigger was the chance for a set effect.

Seth's Scorpion Armor was a prime example of this. He had used the whole carapace that was tinged by demonic and divine powers in a compound with Dragon Scales for his armor, leading to an overwhelming set effect. Of course, the cohesion of design also played into that a little.

The third and hardest way a blacksmith could achieve a set effect was Cohesion by Enchantment. In this case, the blacksmith also needed to have a good understanding of enchantments. The circuits of every single part would be planned out in a way, that they would connect and strengthen if pieces of the set were worn together.

Seth also had a fourth way, which was Cohesion by Soul. However, this depended heavily on the soul used and had little to do with the blacksmith's craftsmanship.

Cohesion by Enchantment was the strongest kind of armor when it came to set effects not dependent on materials, but also the hardest to develop and produce. A lot could go wrong when messing around with enchantment circuits, which was why the development took ages. In addition, it needed high skill in both disciplines to produce such armor sets without a mistake.

Minas Mar's Oath Armor, which Seth had developed with a lot of help from Al'Zalsar was one such armor. It was the only one Seth had ever made himself, and the only one that had been part of his blueprints up to now.