Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

They had all assembled in the lobby of Minas Mar for their departure. Everyone currently home, came to send them off. Seth had decided to finally trust Yu and invite them into the heart of their home.

Seeing Yu motivated to accompany the expedition was really reassuring to Seth. Although they also sent a team of Oathguards and Edward along with Evee and the craftsmen, only Yu would be able to face dangers of the level of someone like Dragos.

There was no further news about that terrifyingly strong man. Not even the Adventurer Guild was able to find out a lot about him. A secretary from Mary told him about the guild's update on the matter. Even after investigating the remnants of his former guild, there was no lead on who exactly Dragos was or where he actually came from.

"Tower, do you detect the spatial beacon?" "Affirmative." "Then open the path for our brave adventurers."

With that, a stable, oval portal opened in the middle of the entrance hall. It was shining in a dark blue light and was much more confidence-inspiring than Evee's first try at making a spatial beacon and a direct teleportation path.

Knowing that Yu was going along with the expedition gave Seth the peace of mind to send their party off with a smile. Under the waves and cheers of the chimeras, Faer, and Tijaahk the expedition vanished through the gate, which closed soon after the last person has entered.

The only thing they could do now was to wait. Evee had explained that the tower ego would notify them, once the teleportation hub was completed and was sending out a steady signal for the magic tower to detect.

At that point, it would be possible to safely and reliably open portals leading to the Holy Land using the power supply of Minas Mar at first. As time went on, the teleport hub would collect and store mana from the surroundings and be able to open the portal independently. Although only in regular intervals.

Since the construction would take time and the tower would notify him if there were changes, Seth soon returned to his workshop. He had been looking forward to this day when his <Carpentry> reached the level of journeyman.

This had been the goal he set for himself before he would start working on Lydia's bow. Now he could finally combine the results of his work, experience, and experiments over the past week and let it all flow into a new item.

It was a blueprint Seth had come up with himself, and it all started with something Bess had told him. It wasn't important what materials were used when building a composite bow, as long they accomplished the task they were supposed to do.

The blacksmith was given the gods sinew, marrow, and timber. Since the marrow was more like a copper-based metal at first glance he had intended to do a sinew-backed bow and use the metal ingot for a mace or club.

After listening to Bess, he had the idea to maybe use the metal at the belly, instead of a kind of horn, to store the compressive force when pulling the bow. Over the last week, he had experimented with different metals and the ways to weld wood and metal together, to see if it was feasible. Depending on the metal, it was very much possible.

Complete confidence in his idea only grew when he tested around with the marrow itself. <Wepwawet's Marrow> reacted like a natural spring when unheated and untreated. When Seth simply struck it with Charon's Obol, the hammer simply bounced back with great force, not leaving as much as a dent.

Only at that point was Seth assured that he had been given these three materials for the very reason to use them in making a composite bow. His first steps followed the traditional making of the bow. Seth appraised the wood and chose the part from which he would shape the core of the bow.

Following everything he had learned from Bess and his own experiments he carved the sidder wood that would become a bow stave slightly shorter than two meters. Although composite bows were known for containing more strength in a smaller size, Seth also had to keep in mind that Lydia was neither a mounted archer nor was she going to fight in human form. The bow had to fit an over two meters tall anthropomorphic wolf.

At this point, the blacksmith had already left the traditional path. The way Bess had shown him he would have had to make parts that would be glued together to form the basis of a recurve bow before being shaped further. This was the first step where Seth incorporated his own knowledge by using <Energy Manipulation> and Charon's Obol to shape the bow stave directly instead of gluing different pieces together.

This way he avoided the weak point a failing glue would introduce. Also, he judged special attributes added through special glues would only water down the arcane cohesion of the piece and get in the way of other effects.

Seth had not been confident in straying off the path he was shown, which was why he spend a lot of time testing whether it would make a great difference. He had also tested following the step of using parts and fusing them this way only eliminating the glue from the equation.

But he found by not compromising the wood with unnecessary cuts, he was able to get better results in general, for what he was aiming to do. With the basic shape of a recurve bow finished like this, Seth began to refine its shape further.

This was back to the fundamental work of a bowyer, as he started tillering the bow to make sure it was bending smoothly when strung and pulled. Taking away in places that were too stiff. Seth did this now, because, in his workflow, he wouldn't be able to do so later.

Once the wood had taken the shape of what was essentially a simple wooden recurve bow, Seth put it aside and entered the smithy. Two-thirds of the marrow was set aside for the mace, while one-third found its way into the forge.

Like the nature of the marrow suggested, Seth turned it into a spring, something close to a flat spring to be specific. It was a thin shell of metal that was going to cover the belly of the bow. Once it was strung the spring would store the compression force and increase the potential power of the projectile.

After roughing out these shells came one of the maybe most ambitious steps of the build. Seth had to adjust the springs to the C-shaped recurve bow and then weld them together with the wood, using his <Energy Manipulation 3> and the ability of the hammer.

Aside from the bow's weird shape to work with, it also took a lot of mana and concentration to keep the marrow malleable enough to shape it without heat. His tests had been okay, but now working with the real deal, he was sweating rivers trying to keep everything together.

In addition to the cost of adjusting the springs, he also had to put in even more mana when he started welding them with the wood. Not only did he have to fill both special-rated materials with his power, he also had to be careful with the wood.

Seth couldn't just go hog wild on the wood, so he had to use small and controlled hammer strikes to precisely marry the two materials together into a bond that would withstand any abuse the weapon may go through. All of it in one go, as he couldn't afford for the energy that had already entered the materials to disseminate if his concentration relaxed.

Once he was satisfied with his progress, Seth had to put aside the bow and leave the workshop. He was drenched in sweat and seriously had to go change his clothes,, maybe take a shower beforehand. Although he had plenty of mental energy and mana thanks to equipment, it didn't lessen the mental fatigue that accumulated. He needed a break before he could continue working on the bow.

"Seth, are you already done?" the fairy suddenly appeared and charged into him. He had just stepped out of the shower, wearing a towel around his hip and drying his hair with a second one.

She was currently in her original fairy form and not serious, so her blow was not too devastating.

"I'm just taking a break for now."

"Don't say that. You should stay the rest of the day with Fin... and Mina! It's so boring."

Seth was a little conflicted. It wasn't like he couldn't understand them. Unlike Seth who was working in the workshops, Mina and Fin didn't really have much to do for now, aside from training. They couldn't visit any dungeons in Delta and training the new recruits wasn't their job. While Seth didn't mind being stuck inside, it was a little worse for the two who were used to running all over the place. Especially after over two weeks.

"You know what? Fine. Let's spend the rest of the day together."

Spending some healing time with the two would definitely cure his mental fatigue.

"Yay, let's go for a walk outside!"