Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Puffles, are you in here?" Seth asked carefully. He had left the caterpillar in this room for several weeks and only met him to eat together. He had left the Ivicer here to make his new alloy threads.

Kyurr kyuu!?

~ Is it time to eat already? Or will you finally free me from this slave task?! ~

The room was filled with wool made of <Celestial Bronze> with some orderly reels stacked to the side. It would soon be enough to visit Nädel for a new jacket

"Errm, no. I just wanted to get some <Celestial Bronze>" he said a little ashamed. A full reel flew towards his face; with force. He would better take the Ivicer with him the next time he went to town.

"Thanks, Puff. Let's go eat out tomorrow, what do you think?"

Kyurr!

~Alright. But don't think that enough to make me forgive you! ~

Seth wanted decided to use some of the Ivicer's bronze as part of Al'Zalsa's "medium". He had noticed early on that the energy of the Ivicers was similar to that of souls, so he guessed that it would have good compatibility with his skills. Originally Al gave him a blueprint and a complicated list of materials that were needed to make a new kind of phylactery that she could possess.

Seth had different plans. For this, he summoned his full <Soul Smithy> and pulled out Charon's Obol. The first step was forging a small frame from <Mithril> to guarantee the durability of the item. It was big enough to fit something the size of a dog tag.

The next material he brought out was the bone fragment of Al'Zalsa he had found in the bone pile.

~W-What is all this?!~ asked the main ingredient when he brought it out. Seth had not used any of his class skills since he met the Lich, so she had no idea about his abilities. He put the bone and the soul on the anvil and started activating <Soul Infusion>

~H-hey what are you trying to do? What is this weird fo-rce?~

Using the hammer's special skill together with <Energy Circulation> he started to forge the bone. Under her constant commentary and complaints, he slowly melded the Lich's soul into the bone fragment.

~No, stop! This is not what I wanted! I wanted a-~ she kept on struggling putting huge pressure on Seth's mental force. It was a big difference between a powerful lv. 180 soul with ego and the small one he had used before. At this moment he was very glad that he had boosted his willpower. Especially stretching out some parts from her soul to infuse into other parts like the frame took a lot out of him.

Finally, he had thoroughly melded the soul into the bone of its former body and distributed his evenly throughout the dog tag sized bone plate he had forged.

~Ouch, this hurt. This won't work! I don't know what you are planning but I will be able to detach my soul from this with enough time! I told you to make me a phylactery! ~

"Oh, don't worry. That's because I'm not finished yet. Do you really think I would simply help resurrect an overpowered Lich? Don't worry too much. if you prove trustworthy, I can still make you this substitute phyla-whatever."

Seth had no idea whether this would actually work, but he could always release her again with <Soul Capture>. He had no idea what would happen, but he looked forward to seeing results.

He set the bone plate into the mithril frame and used small pins at the sides to create a mechanical connection. Then he infused a small part of the soul he had set aside into the flame, creating a magical connection.

On the top and the bottom, the frame had small holes. On the bottom he fixed a tassel made from <Celestial Bronze> and at the top, he used a string from the same material so he could tie it to his belt.

Something he found out when experimenting was that when he used the <Energy Circulation> skill with the engraving tool, he could engrave organic material by displacing material, instead of removing it. It came handy in this case, where he had not much material and it was very precious on top of it.

On the front of the bone, he carved the figure of Al'Zalsa or at least the silhouette of her astral projection he had seen.

~Ouch! It hurts. Why does this hurt!?~ the sorceress kept whining in his ears as he worked with utmost concentration.

Except for using a skill to not lose any material this work was purely for aesthetics. On the backside, he carved the complex circuit for mana gathering and the simple circuit for a bonus in will power.

"And now the most important step."

"Wait! Hey, what is it with this water barrel? I can feel a really dangerous aura from this! D-Don't put me in there! Noooo!"

Seth dunked the sorceress into the Waters of Styx.

"Hiyaa! Wha-What is this?! Hng, ah...this- this doesn't feel too bad..."

<Ding! You have successfully created an ego item for the first time! All stats +1>

<Ding! Title: "Bad Boy" gained. "You have thrust an unwilling Lady into cold water." Increased intimacy with females who like an aggressive approach.>

Another weird skill had come along his way... he was too tired to still complain about these undeserved titles. It irked him more, that many of his attributes he had finally evened out on 5s and 0s had become 1s and 6s... It was great to gain points, but it didn't look as good.

His mood improved a lot when he looked at the new item and the proficiency, he got for it. He got almost 10% through the board for all three crafting skills.

<Ding! You have created your first epic-rated item! All stats+2>

<Token of the Sorceress

Epic

Durability: 1800

1. Summon the Sorceress "Al'Zalsa" for 1h once a week.

2. + 24 Willpower

3. Mana Regeneration: + 5mana/minute

This token houses the soul and consciousness of the great sorceress A'Zalsa who almost became a Legend.

Usage Condition: Al'Zalsa's approval>

Compared with the option of summoning a powerhouse for one hour, his enchantment seemed more like a blemish on the token, than an improvement...

"With this, our deal is finished. Can you still hear me?"

~...Yeah, I can still communicate with you~

Seth's eyes shone.

"Can you tell me about the second class you mentioned?"

~No! ~

"What? But I gave you a physical medium. That was the deal."

~At lv. 50 you will be able to get a secondary job. I won't tell anymore! Although it's not bad, this was not the medium I wanted. ~

"Oh really? Can you still say this...now?"

"Yeah, I can. What should have cha- O.O"

Seth had used the summoning option of the token and before him stood a beautiful older woman in a loose robe revealing a lot of well-tanned smooth skin. She was made of flesh and blood and stared at him with an expression of disbelieve.

"T-This warmth. I can feel the air... I can breathe. I can taste the smoke in the air..."

Tears started to well up in her big green almond-shaped eyes.

"200 years... I lived in a cold unresponsive husk. How did you do it? I looked so long for a way to get back a fleshly body and you simply-!"

"I have no~ Idea how it works. Also, this only lasts for 1 hour a once a week. How is your power?"

Seth had noticed that it had no option to strengthen his own mana as the soul equipment had. Was it because he directly infused it into the item? The point was if he didn't get a boost, it either vanished or Al controlled it. It was a shame he didn't get the mana boost, but it would not be so bad if he could have her fight for him in the worst-case scenario.

The beautiful sorceress calmed down a little upon his question. It was a valid point to test, so she gripped her fists and the air in the room became heavy with mana.

"I have about a third of my original mana... I guess the rest goes into maintaining this body for the hour you mentioned."

She suddenly licked her lips.

"Since I only have one hour, I- we should thoroughly test this body." With that, the loose robe slit off her body.

"You can't be serious."

"It's been more than 200 years... I am more than serious."

They spent the precious hour doing the fun things in life. Seth was unable to walk normally for the next two days.