Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The party stumbled out of the gate and stood on a dark street in the middle of the city. The street was empty and the night was quiet. Not ghostly quiet, but the quiet of a big city. It was... soothing. Even if it was empty and dark, they could feel the city breathing, the presence of people, and the small sound and background noise that assured them, that they were not alone in the world.

Link knelt on the ground and kissed the boardwalk's concrete with tears in his eyes. Despite playing tough most of the time, this trip had hit him harder than it seemed.

"Seth, here take it back."

It was Tekar, who was trying to return the Dark Knight Armor.

"Keep it until I made you something better," Seth told him tiredly.

Although they were all in a terrible condition and tired to the bones, this unexpected trip had really welded them together into a party. Seth decided to make their equipment wholeheartedly, no strings attached. Well, they still had to pay for it. But did working it off with their bodies really count?

"T-thank you," Tekar said touched. He had felt really powerful wearing this armor.

"Okay guy, you should all return home for now. I am in favor of taking a good long break after this nightmare."

A tired "yay~" came from the party members who split up and scuffed away.

"Didn't you forget something...?" said the one member still with him.

"Al... Can we please not do this? I'm really tired."

"This just means you can't resist!" she answered with a spark in her eyes. She laughed in the next moment seeing Seth's wronged face.

"Just gimme money and I will go plunder a restaurant or something. I won't force you... today."

Seth hurriedly shoved a bundle of bills in her arms and ran off towards the system church. The sorceress would simply vanish once her time was up, so it was no problem for them to split up.

The encounter with the 200-year-old predator gave him the adrenaline rush he needed to get back to the church. The night staff looked at him with wide eyes when he suddenly stumbled into the foyer.

He used a church token to use the magically enhanced elevator to his apartment. He had been gone for quite some time and there were people that probably wanted answers, but Seth did not care. He really just wanted to hug the pillow and not wake up for another week.

It was not a full week but he kept doing nothing but sleep, eat, and poop for the next three days. After the first day, he finally told Samuel what had happened. The priest looked concerned when he heard about the foggy world. He assured Seth he would inform the guild about the Third Hospital. Seth also asked the church to look for the sister of the corpse they had found. Then he stopped caring about the world for the next two days.

After replenishing his energies Seth thought about the next steps. He warmed up with some generic armors for the next auctions. After giving away the knight's armor he needed gloves or gauntlets, pauldrons, greaves, and boots to complete his armor again.

Originally, he planned to make the boots with the white bull hide but he was uncertain now that he knew, that the material bore the curse. He was lucky the first time but he might not be as lucky the second time.

For the gloves, he needed to write Nädel, or find a tailor on Urth. He hoped to get another boost on his firepower with a glove of <Celestial Bronze> as the base. Seth had decided to specialize a little more on his <Pyrokinesis>, since it was his only special attack skill.

Seth sighed and put away a finished uncommon breastplate. He simply lacked the thing he could have had easy access to in Ora. Did he really have to relocate to Delta, so he could get regular access to the auction house?

He had heard that the road there had become rather dangerous and cumbersome after the apocalypse. Before there had been many roads and railroad lines that connected Delta, Ypsilon, and Beta through a network of tunnels in the extensive mountain range.

This network had become unusable. People trying to traverse them had simply vanished. The only usable routes were those that led across the surface of the mountains. Side roads, maintenance ways, and ancient dilapidated trade routes.

On top came the monsters that had appeared in the mountains and made them their home. They did not bother to leave the mountains but they didn't say no to prey that visited them in their territory. Reports of mutated eagles, tribes of orcs and mountain trolls, the yeti so on and so forth all kinds of wild stories were circulated and many were rue, coming from the mailman that was responsible for the sparse communication between the districts.

To sum it up, the journey was not very comfortable and Seth knew from experience that traveling across mountains was not really his thing. Accepting that he currently lacked the things for the stuff he really wanted to make, he opted for a set of rare equipment made from <Mithril> and <Dark Steel> as substitutes.

They were also a good test for the new souls he had acquired. They were all uncommon and seemed to have an effect related to the mind. He only knew the full potential after using them a little. First, he made a gauntlet using a medium-sized soul from the monsters.

<Mind Gauntlet

Rare

Damage: 280

Phys. Def: 415

Mag. Def: 285

Durability: 1800

1.+10% Mana regeneration in Darkness

2.+20% Resistance to negative status effects (Mind)

3. 35% chance to cause mental disruption on hit (Effects: Stun/Confusion)

4. +120 Mana

A gauntlet made by Journeyman Smith and imbued with peculiar effects using special means.>

Just infusing the soul already brought 2 special effects that would have counted as complicated enchantments if he had to engrave them on the item. That was ignoring the fact that he did not even know the circuit for those.

Looking at the effect of these souls gave Seth a good idea for Tekar's items. With these souls, there was the possibility to turn their "useless" tank in one terrifying weapon of crowd control. Thinking of the equipment for his party was a welcome distraction at this point.

For Alison... Seth was no tailor but he still had his padded jacket made of <Ancient Bronze>. Maybe he could ask Al'Zalsa to enchant it for him. If not, he could still infuse one of the new souls into it.

And for the Gourmet Hunter... Seth bet that Link would appreciate a cooking knife made of mithril! Jokes aside, Seth wanted to talk with the hunter before deciding. Right now, Link was using a bow but maybe Seth could convince him to change to a crossbow? Using the <Magic Steel> and these new souls he might be able to create a wicked crossbow.

After a quick tangent, Seth ended up thinking about his own equipment again. There was another kind of soul he needed to check; the ones dropped by the Tuatha de. Big and uncommon meant they had an effect and gave somewhere around 1000 mana.

Seth made a gauntlet from <Magic Steel> and infused one of the big souls into it.

<Thaumatic Gauntlet

Rare

Damage: 230

Phys. Def: 355

Mag. Def: 570

Durability: 2000

1.+30% Mana regeneration

2. +900 Mana

3.Casting Time is Reduced by 25%

A gauntlet made by Journeyman Smith and imbued with peculiar effects using special means.>

Seth was shocked by the effects of the soul. Those glowpeople must have been the born magic users! And this was just the effect an uncommon soul, what could a rare soul from them do?

This reminded Seth of a thought he had a long while back, could he upgrade the rating of souls by fusing them? Back then he could only try with common souls, but now he had a whole bunch of uncommon souls. Even if they did not upgrade wouldn't their effects grow stronger if he fused the same kinds of uncommon souls?