Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Various potions were lined up on the table in the room. Stamina, Health, Mana, Concentration, and Satiety potions. The last potion had the effect of providing nutrition for three days and suppress the hunger during this time. These were his preparation for maybe the longest forging session ever since he became a blacksmith.

The second to last potion helped the mental force to strengthen and recover.

It was the morning of the day when Samuel would announce and start advertising the auction. Seth summoned the <Soul Smithy>. He took off his shirt and wore a headband to stop the sweat from getting in his eyes.

Seth placed two of the Wyvern Fangs on the anvil. They were the length of his forearm and just as thick at the base. For the weapon he wanted to forge he needed at least this much material. In this session he even had Cerberus help him. The golem had the peculiar skill to mirror the summoner's skills.

The two, man and golem, took turns hammering the teeth into shape. The was never a moment when their hammers stopped as they forged the teeth into two uniform billets. This was just a preparatory action. The next step was to forge weld the two billets. This was easier said than done.

Seth had already gotten a taste of the difficulty when he folded the bow's wood the other day. Normally when it came to forge welding metals the billets would need to be thoroughly heated to the right temperature before welding them together with hammer strikes.

In this type of forging there was no heat involved, but mana. This meant Seth would have to keep the teeth completely soaked in his mana to keep them malleable until they became one piece.

On top of this came not just singing the demonic ballad but also a partial soul infusion. Exactly, partial.

Seth brought out the <Wyvern Soul (Massive)>. This was his big plan. This soul was not just rare-rated but also gigantic and extremely powerful. It would be a waste to put it in just one item, so Seth decided to use it to make a whole set.

He separated out a fourth of the wyvern soul and brought it on the anvil. Then he started infusing mana in his voice and began singing the blood drinker ballad. His was the start signal and everything came into motion. Golem and blacksmith were forging the ivory-colored billets to the dark tunes of the demon world.

Like yesterday, the runes and soul were slowly fusing into the material as the two working it. The ivory color turned into a dark grey with a reddish sheen. He felt much better than yesterday, thanks to the potions he had drunk and they soon started giving the material its shape.

The weapon Seth planned to make was neither a saber nor a sword. It was a broad single-edged blade as long as a longsword and slightly curved. The weapon Seth planned to make was a Kriegsmesser. A big one similar to a bastard sword in size, maybe slightly bigger.

After the blade had taken shape, the ballad was close to its end and the soul piece was almost completely fused into the blade, during the last verses Seth made the big crossguard and the characteristic nail from <Mithril> and fused the rest of the soul into it.

To finish the construction, he used a piece of the snake fangs for the handle scales and quenched the weapon in the waters of Styx to seal the soul inside the item.

He knew it was technically finished, but he got no notification that he had finished an epic-rated item. The reason was that he was still using soul infusion to keep the other 3/4 of the massive soul stable. Seth was making a whole set, so it was only finished when all pieces were done. This was also why he prepared to work for a long time! He needed to finish all 4 items in one go.

Before he started on the next item, he sat down to enchant the Kriegsmesser, only then, it would really be finished. The enchantments he chose were the two complex circuits life steal and armor destruction. He didn't choose bleeding because Al had advised him against it.

This was a weapon made from the tooth of a race close to a dragon and he infused the soul of its previous owner. The Lich had conjectured that together with the ballad, the properties of the material would generate a skill like <Bleed> on their own.

He got the notification that he succeeded in enchanting, but the weapon was not finished.

The next part of the set was a ring. For this, he used something he had kept up his sleeve for a long time, ever since he had found it. He had looked into it and found nothing better for this purpose, the Blood Garnet.

It was a product from a dragon race, this was a step above something like a wyvern which only counted as relatives. It had a strong affinity with fire and he had long thought about how to use it. This ring was the essence of his will to use more of his fire-related abilities in the future.

<Ding! Skill: Goldsmith (Adept) lv.9 has become Goldsmith (Adept) lv.10!>

<Ding! Skill: Goldsmith (Adept) lv.10 has become Goldsmith (Journeyman) lv.1!>

Finally, his <Goldsmith> had caught up in rank!

For the ring's body, he chose <Serenum> and as the nucleus the <Blood Garnet>. Seth had no ballad that fit very well with what he wanted, so he chose the one with the least drawbacks. It slightly increased the durability and added the chance of strengthening an attack with a random curse.

The enchantments were inspired by "Dragon Bane" and he had Al's help to do it. One enchantment lessened the cost of skills and the other increased his willpower.

The ring was the easiest of the items he had to make and worked as a small break in between the two most demanding items. Seth had to turn on the lights before he continued. It had already gotten dark outside. The <Fire Glass> found its place on the anvil. Next up was the cuirass. The lump of <Fire Glass> was just enough for a breastplate, but Seth would not stop there.

Accompanied by another ballad they started to forge the lump of red opaque crystal into an elegant breastplate. The demonic runes turned the glass darker and darker until it became dark crimson and almost clear.

The effect of this ballad would give Seth the option to reflect a portion of the damage he received in exchange for some of his blood. Technically it was an armor of thorns that would do damage to both parties. But a lot less to the user.

Above the heart, Seth added 4 wyvern scales forming a cross to protect his heart. Under the constant strikes of hammers, the dark green scales and demonic runes fused into the crimson red glass and turned a deep black. Seth was in a good mood and playfully carved the relief of dragonhead onto the sternum of the breastplate.

He split and forged 20 of the remaining scales and used part of the <Hide of the White Bull> to add a scale skirt to the breastplate that reached all the way down to his knees.

As he looked at the almost finished cuirass before him, he again felt that the planned enchantments were somewhat lacking, similar to how he felt with the bow. This wasn't a problem, since he could always add them later.

The sky outside was already lightening again. He needed to finish the last part of the set, the Shield. Before the exhaustion caught up to him. He used the same song he used for the cuirass and started merging the 11 scales he had left behind.

Seth used <Dark Steel> for reinforcement and made a round shield, slightly bigger than a buckler. Inspired by the cuirass, he molded a terrifying dragon face onto the shield and by the time the song ended, the scale had turned almost black. When he dunked the shield into the water barrel a barrage of notifications flooded into his mind.

<Ding! Various elements have formed a synergy and cause effects to grow! >

<Ding! You have created an Epic Item!> x4

<Ding! You have created your first Epic Set! All Stats +5>

<The Lame one is impressed with your work!>

<Ding! Skill: Energy Circulation lv.9 has become Energy Circulation lv.10!>

<Ding!...

The fatigue was catching up. He couldn't hear the rest of the announcements. He was finally done. Now he could- No he was not done yet. He still needed to enchant the shield with demoralizing and shield. The shield would create a barrier proportional in strength to the mana supplied. While demoralize made the targets listless and unwilling to fight. Seth concentrated one last time to carve the circuits into the shield.

The sun stood high above in the sky as Seth finally fell on his bed and lost consciousness before he could even take a look at his finished items.