Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

In the mornings he would have sparring sessions with Tekar to train his new movement skill. It was a very steady skill that focused on the foundations. It was not complicated to train but took a lot of energy. In exchange, it improved his overall movability and evasion, especially in combat.

The rest of the day he spent leisurely with enchanting the little nick-nacks he had bought from street vendors and the jewelry he had looted. Jewelry he could not enchant because it was too small or finicky found its way into the furnace and was recycled.

He also smelted the steel he had collected in the ruins on their way back. It did not help much to level his skills, but he had fun doing it. The calm work helped him to concentrate and think things through. Seth felt that his time in Y-City was coming to an end. During the next auction, he would look for a damage dealer and then... there was almost nothing left to do.

Seth was quite clear about the fact that he didn't want to stay in Y-City. It was not a place that could help him grow stronger and it was definitely not a place he wanted to open a shop. He thought long about this, but his next destination was obvious.

He wanted to travel to Delta the previous capital of the world. Delta was not as big as the other districts because its intended function was the seat of the council that governed the city districts. Now it was a hotchpotch of ori huma, people of the Crona Empire, and demons. At least, that was what Samuel told him.

Why did he want to go there? There were a few reasons. The only branch of the systems auction house was in Delta. It was situated close to an active volcano, which he needed to refine <Olympian Silver>. And he had the slight hope to find a demon blacksmith to learn more demonic smithing ballads.

Opening a shop branch in that place also seemed less problematic than in a city that was thirsting for equipment. Delta seemed like the most suitable place for him to settle down. Of course, he could make a lot of money here, but he was not greedy enough to lose sight of his goal.

He could still sit back and rake in money after he mastered his craft. On the other side, he was not driven enough to let go of this opportunity without any regrets. But his time was really too precious to spend it on making uncommon stuff just to sell it.

Before he left for Delta, he would either have to leave a stock of items for the future auctions or keep making and sending them over from Delta.

If only he could get a smithing slave... he looked at Cerberus. If only he could make it more intelligent. At least good enough that it could finish simple weapons. The golem had the skills and power of the master who previously created this class, but the skills were nerfed to Seths's level. Still, even with Seth's level, it would be easy for it to make an uncommon sword.

His eyes fell on his skill point, he had not touched in a long time. Seth had leveled up quite a lot recently and accumulated 8 Free SP. He just needed five of those to level up the <Spirit Smithy>. Maybe Cerberus would also get an upgrade if he leveled the skill...?

He shrugged. It would not hurt to try.

But when he checked it cost actually 6 SP to level <Spirit Smithy> to level 6, had the costs increased? Begrudgingly he still decided to level up the skill. After he heard the level-up notification, he took a look at the perk list and sighed.

Cerberus had not gotten an upgrade. Instead, the production speed of all crafting stations had increased by 25%. He had not gotten what he wanted, but it was not a total loss either.

He looked at the 2 pitiful SP he had left. This was the only way he knew to level up the <Spirit Smithy> but the costs were immense. What would level 7 cost? 7 SP or maybe it would be 8 by then...

Who knew how many levels he needed to max it out? And it wasn't like he could spend all of his SP on just the <Spirit Smithy>. He was convinced there would be other skills he would need SP for.

When he checked the crafting station to see whether there were some hidden improvements that were not part of the perk, his face lit up. Cerberus had improved. It was not as far as to automatically make finished weapons, but the golem could now prepare weapon blanks for Seth like a real blacksmith assistant or apprentice.

This was not completely what he had wanted, but it gave Seth hope for the future. Now he could leave the golem with part of his freshly stocked-up <High-quality Steel>, about 100 bars. He also left some of the snake bones with Cerberus, since it shared his skills, it could use <Energy Circulation 2> to turn those into blanks, too.

Golems could work day and night without pause. From time to time Seth would come and finish the blanks. All he needed to do was refining them and finishing the weapons. He did not become very creative with the enchantments and made mostly simple weapons with a range of different elemental damages.

This was he effectively used the downtime to prepare a stockpile of weapons for future auctions after he left. Seth fathomed that there were enough to last until uncommon weapons lost in worth Y-City. At that point, he could send a batch of rare items for the auctions.

Although his skills barely increased from each individual item, altogether gave him 5-8% across the board.

He discussed his plan with Tekar during their sparring sessions. Link and Alison had no relatives left in Y-City and easily agreed to the move. Mary and Jane were already his sla- already agreed to follow him anywhere. Only Tekar had his little daughter. Leaving with Seth for a different city was a decision that did not just concern him.

It also meant that they would have to bring his daughter along and protect her on the travel. Tekar talked to his daughter and agreed, in the end, to come along. However, Seth could see that he was still not convinced.

The big father calmed down a lot, when Seth told him, that he planned to recruit a proper vanguard during the next auction. It was the only role Seth was still missing in his party. Until now it was him filling this role more or less, but it did not fit him. He was coping by using his fire and gear, but he much rather left this job to a true melee class.

After two weeks of waiting finally came the date for the second auction. Beside the Armor, Seth had prepared some additional highlights for the auction.