Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

After Lunchbreak the blacksmiths returned to their workshops and Seth was once again alone with the hammer. Well, not completely alone, Sivri and Cerberus were busily working on their own projects in the background.

Although the big boy Cerberus had been working on did not get his time to shine in their battle with The Scene, it was finished, and Cerberus was back to passively farming proficiency for Seth. Sivri was similarly helping the bard attack the giant wall that was the master tier. He had left the relic-rated dungeon worm crystal in her capable hands.

Seth had made quite a few relics and legendary items since he reached the master tier and despite the increased proficiency from his place on the Leadership board and the improved crafting speed of his , he had barely filled up 60% of the proficiency needed to reach lv.2.

It was no wonder that usually, only long-lived races like dwarves or elves were able to become high-ranking masters or even grandmasters. Unless one was insanely talented and lucky, they needed to become a legend to not die of old age before reaching the higher end of the master tier.

Seth put away the hammer and turned to forge its mirror image from a soul. The blacksmith had asked Tano’Mol rather half-heartedly whether he had any souls that would have the attributes of the hammer.

Justice, Purity, War, Leadership, and Life… Seth didn’t expect to get anything fitting all of them, however, all but war were rather rare, at least in Tano’Mol’s assortment, since he did not deal with the souls of the innocent. Leadership was also a little more common.

Although the weapon was going outside Minas Mar, Seth did not intend to compromise on quality. Though he did use this chance to skimp a little on materials. With the Soul refinery, it was not necessary to get a high-quality soul from the get-go.

The soul he had prepared for the hammer was called

The essence of souls that have fought and died on the battlefield. Holds the skills and memories of many fallen warriors. Skills: Tide of Flesh and Bone, Leadership, Weapon Mastery. Trait: Men of War>

It was the refined essence of roughly 1,500 common small souls of warriors and low-ranking leaders that the demon had harvested across the battlefield. Like this, he used the Soul Refinery to make up for individual quality with quantity. Although the soul was “only” rare, it came with three skills and a trait. He decided that was more than enough.

The practiced blacksmith had no problem forging the soul into a twin of its soon-to-be physical body and continued with the enchantment of the soul. Seth wasn’t going to break with the warrior theme. Although it was not the greatest, Seth used a circuit called “Warrior Blessing”.

This enchantment was a mix of the different Attribute enchantments, raising all physical stats by 40. Using this, left him with enough room, to add the master-tier durability enchantment onto the soul, to further reinforce the hammer. Although it had mending, it might be detrimental if the hammer was too bent out of shape, every time he hit something.

What followed had already become a routine. He infused the soul into the hammer and dunked it into the Waters of Styx, where it floated for a moment until the notifications started playing.

And, the holy effect of Tyr’s Asgardian Electrum was registered under his path, which meant that in the future, given enough PoE, he would be able to create it himself, or at least a legendary material that would be able to do the same. But before he checked his own status, he had a look at the hammer.

Phys. Damage: 3200

Durability: 1800

1. 75% Curse resistance

2. +100%Health regeneration

3. Tyr's Judgment

4. Tyr's Advanced Leadership

5. Tyr's Double Tap

6. Trait: Men of War

7. +100 Strength

8. Mending

9. Warrior's Blessing

10. Passive Skill: Weapon Mastery.

11. Active Skill: Tide of Flesh and Bone

A maliciously holy hammer, created and enchanted by Master Smith, the first Master Enchanter,

and Master Blacksmith of Urth. Forged from a scarce material blessed by the God Tyr, it is the perfect weapon for a leader and Champion of Justice.

Requirement: Chosen of Tyr/Acknowledgment of Tyr>

Seth read the description of the hammer with a satisfied smile. The biggest, but most expected change was what happened to . As he had already experienced before, during the final birth of the weapon the power of Tyr had purged and transformed the demonic power, leaving the effect without the cost.

The effect was as simple as it was effective. It doubled the attack damage if that meant to kill the opponent instantly. For example, if the opponent had 49 HP remaining and the next strike would deal 30, it will instead deal 60 and instantly kill the other.

Another was Tyr's Leadership which was part of the god's blessing. It had changed and fused with the leadership skill, adding the advanced modifier. Like it would strengthen the power of the people under him.

Tyr's Judgement was simple to explain, it tripled the damage against all who were judged by the hammer's divine power to be aligned with evil. was also a very simple effect, and mirrored the skill of the same name. It added +5 to all weapon skills.

The traits were quite interesting, as it was similar to leadership, but in both ways. Depending on the quality of the troops, the trait would be a tremendous buff.

15% of the average attributes of your troops are added to your men.>

The final skill that was inherited from the soul was a little disturbing.

Active Skill: Tide of Flesh and Bone->

Take control of your army and command a mad rush. For the next minute, while charging, all your men are immune to negative status anomalies and will follow your every order. The extent of control depends on the difference in willpower and leadership.

Despite not being the chosen of Tyr, Seth as the maker, was still able to give the hammer a few swings, just to test its overall handling. Satisfied with his work the bard looked at the clock. It was still a little too early to go home, so he gave the Guivre Materials some love.

Earlier he had the idea that maybe, if he had a real Carbuncle, he would be able to turn the pseudo- Carbuncle into a real one, using his power as a legendary forger. Maybe this was the correct way to use this skill all along.

Instead of treating the saved patterns as enchantments, he could place on items, maybe he should treat them as a refining technique that could allow him to turn relic-rated materials into legendary ones.

Of course, these were all empty dreams, if it didn’t work. If he had understood one thing about legends, then it was that they were complicated and often very unique. It didn’t make sense to look for a pattern, all he could do was try!

The whole idea was based on the set of 45 Guivre Fangs Link had brought him. He had the idea when he remembered the Poison Dragon Fang Pattern he had gained earlier when making the Jaws of Apep.

So, with his remaining 300p and the additional 100p from finishing a special item just now, the blacksmith tried to enchant the Guivre Fang with the power of a Poison Dragon Fang. He immediately got the feedback that he did not enough PoE to do so, as usual, since he was far from having the necessary income to copy a bona fide legend.

However, he could feel that there was a difference like there was when he managed to elevate the to true . Even if it was not always true, Seth saved it as a rule of thumb, that the closer the material of the forgery was to the genuine thing, the less PoE it would cost him.

Although he could only make a rough guess, of how much it would cost if he had enough points, he estimated that he would need around 5000 points in Power of Existence to turn the Guivre Fang into a Poison Dragon Fang.

This sounded like a lot because Seth was currently a pauper, but it felt significantly less when compared to the feeling when he tried to apply the same pattern to a metal sword or other weapon.

An evil grin surfaced on the blacksmith's smile when he dreamed of flooding the market with legendary poison swords, like a remake of the time, when he sold dozens of poison bone swords made from the bones of the Titanoboa.

Sometimes he had the worry that he was an Agent of Chaos. Most of the time, he didn’t mind.