Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

After returning to Minas Mar, he spent a while explaining what had happened to Mary and the other Lords, who had finally woken and sobered up. The golems would still stay on patrol duty until the Oathguard was back in shape.

Once the important stuff was dealt with, the blacksmith returned to his kingdom. Reaching the master tier was only a milestone, there was still a lot to do to prepare for the Guild's Holy Land.

It was finally time to get serious with the <Bones of Seth>. First up was a pendant for Evee. He had been looking forward to it, as he already had the perfect soul for it from the beginning. The Malicious Sprite King's Soul had the attributes of darkness and necromancy, fitting Evee's offensive capabilities perfectly.

Darkness worked for a lot of her curses and witchcraft, while the immortal witch had also started learning necromancy lately. This way she didn't have to die first before she could make use of the items she already possessed.

The blacksmith split off a small part of the special <Bones of Seth> and brought it over to the jeweler's table. If there was one thing Seth lamented, then it was his lack of aesthetic sense. He had the skills to copy even the most intricate designs, but when left alone he would normally choose to make something minimalist.

Instead of trying to come up with something impressive, Seth chose something personal. Once upon a time, the blacksmith had forged a pair of hands and forearm bones for Evee. Referring to this he decided to make a distal phalanx or the bone of a fingertip as a pendant for her.

It also fit with the overall theme of enchantments he planned on putting on it. First was the forging ballad he sang while shaping the finger bone. The song was dedicated to a Demon called Murmur and praised the great battles he fought at the side of his undead armies.

He was one of the demons known for their powerful skills in necromancy, able to resurrect the dead while binding their souls. His blessing could greatly increase a necromancer's power and dark magic such as curses.

Seth spend a good amount of souls on this one since he didn't intend for another demonic enchantment on the pendant. He couldn't help but be tense up when he came close to finishing the finger bone.

Even with all his preparations concerning his crafting luck, he could not help but fear the random effects <Bones of Seth>, even when it seemed to be less drastic on the special rating. Since he had the intention to go step by step, to see how the chaotic factor would play into the items, he got the completion notification for a legendary item.

<Ding! You have finished a special item!>

<Ding! A Synergy of powers has changed your item.>

And the one for synergies changing his items. His heart still ached a little when he thought about not gaining any more attribute points from legendary items. Nervously he checked the current effects of the pendant.

<Fingerbone of Seth

Special

Durability: 5000

1. Dark Magic is 150% more Destructive

2. 80% Cost Reduction for Dark Spells and Curses

3. All undead under the wearer's command deal 50% More Damage

4. There is a small chance to create a special undead of random rank whenever an undead is created.

5. The costs of medium-rank undead and above is lowered by one rank.

6. The Horde

A macabre pendant created by Master Smith, the first Master Enchanter and Master Goldsmith of Urth, using a divine material and demonic incantations to offer the wearer greater power of the dead. An item any Necromancer would gladly sell their soul for.>

Seth gulped and he could feel his body relax. This was already really good. The blacksmith was no expert in the necromancer class, but judging by the descriptions of the effects, he could guess that this pendant could already enable a mediocre necromancer to build a powerful undead army.

Summoning higher ranks at lower costs, improved power, special zombies... and then there was the effect "The Horde".It lowered the cost of creating and improving the power of the undead, based on the number of already present undead. The bigger the horde, the stronger it was and the easier it would become to grow.

This sounded like an indispensable skill for a necromancer...

Using a big magnifying glass, Seth engraved a complex triple-formation for mana gathering onto the finger, to add the effect of improved mana regeneration. With that, the physical pendant was done. The next step was the soul armament.

Looking at the massive, rare ego soul of the Malicious Sprite King, it would have also been a great candidate for something like a necromancer golem, but he was too disgusted by the soul's original owner and ego. He rather used it to make an item.

Getting rid of the soul's ego was definitely a necessary step in the crafting process. This time, unlike when working with the angel's soul, Seth had much more experience. It allowed him to be a lot more efficient when it came to wiping out the terrible personality of the person it once was.

Ghostly cries echoed through the workshop, as Seth used the Wraithguard to hold down the soul. Unlike most souls, it was obvious that this man had spent a lot of time researching and experimenting with the afterlife.

Where other souls would have a hard time just grasping what was going on, he was hard to deal with, even as just a soul. With the cacophonous screams as his background music, Seth did his best trying to identify and break the parts that constitute that man's personality without harming the knowledge he possessed.

It was a hard process and not perfect by any means, but the sweating blacksmith felt quite confident that he had succeeded in wiping out the ego's personality. Even if it was necessary, Seth found that didn't feel good about it.

Despite being convinced that this creature deserved it, there was something deeply unsettling in knowing that he had technically lobotomized a soul. He knew no better metaphor for the result he had achieved, than someone who had undergone a lobotomy.

The soul was responsive and it had not lost any of it's affinities, but it was... unsettling conversing with it. The emotionless, mechanical answers... At least the souls still had a chance to grow into a better ego, once it became an item.

That was his excuse to feel better about what he did.

Afterward, he shaped the soul and got ready for the final step before finishing the pendant, the Olympian enchantment: The Blessing of Acheron.

Seth's research found that Acheron, like Phlegeton, Cocytus, Styx, and Lethe, was a river in the underworld. It was namely the river of lost souls, that the dead had to cross to get into the underworld, by paying Charon his Obol to ferry them over.

Acheron, the river god, was also the god of the Lake of Pain in the underworld. As the first and biggest boundary to souls, Seth was relatively sure his blessing would have something to do with necromancy. The blacksmith would have chosen Hecate's Blessing for Evee, the problem was that he had already used it and was not willing to sacrifice his Cloak of Hecate.

The next best enchantment for a necromancer he could find in the list was that of Acheron, as it had the highest chance to lend powers fit for necromancers. The presence that appeared, when he started to engrave the Sigil of a simple spiral ending in a central circle, felt melancholic.

Seth found it befitting of something called "the river of woe". Although it made him feel awkward, this may have been the least distracting blessing he experienced so far. When he finished the engraving on the soul, it was covered in a constantly changing wave patterns that sometimes looked like the faces of pained souls.

<Ding! You have modified a legendary item!>

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

<Finger of Acheron

Legendary

Durability: 5000

1. Dark Magic is 150% more Destructive

2. 80% Cost Reduction for Dark Spells and Curses

3. All undead under the wearer's command deal 200% More Damage

4. There is a small chance to create a special undead of random rank whenever an undead is created.

5. The costs of medium-rank undead and above is lowered by one rank.

6. The Horde

7. +90% Darkness Affinity

8.+200% Power to Necromancy Magic

9.+150% Power to Curses and Dark Magic

10. Passive Skill: Acheron's Dominion

11. Active Skill: Acheron's Decree

12. +95% Mana Regeneration

A macabre pendant created by Master Smith, the first Master Enchanter and Master Goldsmith of Urth, , using a divine powers and demonic incantations to offer the wearer greater power over the dead and delve into the depths of dark magic. An item any Necromancer or Dark Mage would gladly sell their soul for.>

It had worked! Looking at the additional effects and the two skills, it seemed that his guess had been right. The description of the two skills was not very long.

<Acheron's Dominion> improved the Control Attribute. A unique attribute for necromancers that limited the amount and strength of the undead they could command.

<Acheron's Decree, No Cost, 25 Minutes Cool Down,

At Acheron's decree, all hostile undead in the range of your call are forced to stay still and become defenseless for 30 seconds. >

<Acheron's Decree> was a crowd control skill exclusive for the undead. Useless unless one was fighting the undead, very effective when facing a huge army of undead with a megaphone or a similar skill to make one's "call" louder.

In addition, there were more options that improved dark magic and curses, Seth was sure, Evee would like it.