Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth stayed in bed a while longer, together with Fin and Mina. Considering the heavy discussion yesterday they all welcomed the distraction. The blacksmith showed up in his workshop sometime around midday.

Feeling much calmer, Seth was ready to start the last stretch, which had just become that much more important. With a lining of death fabric, the headpiece had the least fabric, and such was the first he wanted to start with.

The lining of death fabric was not the only thing special about it. The elaborate circlet with the fine veil of chain mail was enchanted with a new enchantment, Seth had created with the help of Sivri, Fin, and his Lucky Trinket Ring.

Murmur was a dreadful demon who could put tremendous pressure on the mind of the summoner. Since Evee would take this role if she decided to sacrifice undead to Murmur, she would need a high resistance to mental corruption.

With combined luck and expertise, they had managed to fuse the Mind Cocoon enchantment he had purchased a long time ago and the master-tier Willpower enchantment, creating the Mind Defender circuit, that raised a mental barrier based on the user’s willpower+75. It was the only usable result after two hours of trying and a great asset for future the future concerning <Mad Ithildin> and the Lunacy Set.

Seth had almost spent the longest time enchanting the headpiece with the modified master-tier enchantment, so much so his back had started creaking. Now, another not-so-short enchanting session was waiting for him, because he had chosen to double down on the Mind Defender. Evee was going to need all the mental protection she could get.

The soul in question was that of the magic swordsmen with the special mana trait, and the enchantment was the master tier enchantment of Intelligence. This way the headpiece was an almost pure mage item.

Forging the soul circlet was quick, enchanting not so much. Still, it was the easier part, considering that the easiest part may become the hardest this time. forging the soul took longer this time because Seth tried to take extra care to have the soul armament resemble the headpiece as closely as possible. He did everything he could to make the infusion easier on himself. However, at some point, he could no longer stall for time and finished the soul armament.

“Here we go,” he said to himself and remembered how he had done it with the golden fleece. With his mind's eye, he tried to feel and picture the many fibers and threads of the fabric, as he used <Soul Infusion> to connect the yarn and soul with each other.

However, unlike with materials that aligned with his class, Seth had a hard time influencing the fabric with his ability. He felt like a deaf man, wandering in darkness. Compared to the lining, the soul easily slipped into the <Enriched Necron>.

To Sivri, it looked like Seth was simply standing there doing nothing for almost half an hour, after which he suddenly exclaimed. “AhA!”, startling the golden automaton a little. After blindly reaching around in the darkness, the blacksmith had finally caught onto a clue.

If metals and other materials that were judged to belong to his class and burned like a signal flare in the sense of the <Soul Infusion>, then fabrics were almost invisible. But they were not intangible. Once Seth caught onto the feeling, he didn't let it go. Now that he knew what he was looking for, he was able to slowly approach the act of infusing the soul into the fabric.

The tight and complicated weave slowly took shape before his mind's eye and Seth started connecting the soul thread by thread like he would with a chain mail, or like he did with the Golden Fleece. Only that this was much finer and harder and more complicated to do. The bard started sweating from the mental strain and concentration it took to keep up the action of infusing the soul. He had to finish it in one go. Despite only being a small piece of fabric, Seth felt like he was sitting in place for hours and he one by one besouled the threads.

Despite his fatigue, his heart couldn't help but beat fast. His approach was working! He was able to use the ability on something he had no connection through the system or his class. It was always something special, to succeed based on one's own efforts and struggles.

Gasping and drenched in sweat, Seth fell back in his chair. He was finished, and the notifications rang in his head.

<Ding! You have created a legendary item!>

<Ding! A synergy between powers has changed your item!>

<Ding! You have gained 100p Power of Existence!>

Seth cocked his head. Legendary? Blinking, he stared at the headpiece. Had he really managed to create a legendary item without using a legendary material? This was the first legendary item he created without using legendary material or the direct blessing of gods. He did not feel like this accomplishment was diminished by the fact that he used an extremely special material in cooperation with a very special tailor.

<Crown of Death

Death Set 1/X

Phys. Def.: 900

Mag: Def:1375

1. Death Domination

2. + 2 <Sword Aura>

3. Trait: Mana Monstrosity

4. Mind Defender Factor 2 Authentication.

5. Active Skill: Suicide

Set Effects: To be updated.

A headpiece that spells death for the wearer and his enemies. A diabolical piece of equipment created by Master Smith, the first Master Enchanter, and Master Blacksmith of Urth with the help if Master Boos, the first Tailor Master of Urth. If the wearer is lucky enough to survive wearing it, they may never be bothered by mental attacks again.>

Seth stared at the option of the mind defender for a while. This had to be the reason it had directly jumped to legendary. The effects of the enchantment had more than doubled, compared to what it was supposed to be capable of.

<Mind Defender Factor 2 Authentication:

1.+180 Willpower

2. The Wearer gain 65% Resistance to Mind Effects.

3. Negative Status Effects that are judged hostile are weakened by up to 50%

4. Mental Power is increased by 15%>

Seth couldn't help but suspect, that this was not only the result of putting the same enchantment on the item twice. If he had to guess, which he had to, then the two enchantments had not only reacted with each other but also with a property of the knight's soul. Whatever it was, Seth was glad it happened, since it made him feel a lot better about the enchantment he chose for the gloves.

While the strength circuits he used on the gauntlets themselves were rather harmless, the enchantment he chose for their soul wasn't. For the gauntlets, he had fused two of the souls, one excelling in pugilism, the other in swordsmanship, and the soul enchantment was a reason why the blacksmith decided to connect the two gauntlets like this.

The piece he wanted to engrave was a poem called “Cantori’s Right, Moderni’s Left” by the demon bard Alessa. It had the effect of imbuing specific powers into the left or right hand of a set of gloves or gauntlets. By enchanting it on the shared soul, he fulfilled the requirement of it being not just a pair, but a set of gloves.

The text itself spoke of brood brothers, Cantori and Moderni, the two sides of the same coin. One a powerful magician with an incredible aim, the other a brute, with the power to crush and bury enemies in a single strike. The enchantment would improve the power and precision of magic used with the right hand, while it would improve physical damage and defense on the left. It was just right for someone like Evee who would keep switching combat styles.

Channeling the power brought a heat and he felt two pairs of eyes on himself. The price for this demonic enchantment was the corruption of battle frenzy. It was a danger as well as a buff. As long as Evee could keep a clear mind and resist the temptation, it would only boost her power.

Originally, Seth was ready to try and mitigate the worst case of her becoming a demon of battle, by paying a heart-wrenching number of souls. However, his worries calmed considerably. Even if he didn't mitigate it, she would probably be fine, unless she was going to repeatedly fall into a state of mindless slaughter.

On second thought, Seth still paid a great price, he rather didn't specify to disarm the side effects at least partially. After the last rune was written and the gaze of the demons in his back vanished, he stood once again before the hurdle of infusing the soul into the fabric.

This time he had prior experience and he could still remember the feeling of infusing a soul over hours, vividly. He hardened his will and started the process of arduous infusing the soul armament fiber by fiber into the fabric.

After his first time, things went much quicker as had some practice and already started getting the hang of it. Was it really just him getting better at it? The increase in speed even surprised Seth and then, finally, the notifications rang, bringing him an unsuspected but welcome surprise.

<Ding! You have created a relic!>

<Ding! You have created a relic!>

<Ding! Your Skill Soul infusion lv.8 had become Soul infusion lv.9!>

His skill actually leveled up.