Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

During lunch the next day everyone was assembled in the cafeteria.

"Hey guys, how about we go visit a dungeon? It's been a while and we should test our new party composition."

Seth suggested a dungeon dive after everyone had finished their meal. They had stayed indoors for almost 3 weeks and there were no signs of Baker making any moves.

"Good Idea, I'm running out of ingredients." the gourmet hunter suddenly mentioned. Alison and Evee nodded. In the past weeks, they had spent most of their time grinding their skills. Alison and Link had improved their crafting skills by leaps and bounds.

Alison attained <Alchemy (Beginner) lv.7> and could reliably make a range of lesser potions.

Evee had worked hard on her <Brewing> and trained her magical skills she was not able to use without her hands. First and foremost was <Hexes>. This magic had spells that could either support her allies or impede her enemies.

The difference to the spells of a regular supporter was the variations and she needed to prepare a specific medium to cast most of them. It limited the times she could use a spell to the number of prepared consumables.

On top of it, she had <Revival> and <Recovery> that came from a priest's skill set. She was not just a healer, but a well-rounded addition to the team. Together with her joined the second non-human member of the party.

Her familiar, she named Felix, had benefitted a lot during their journey back and from Link's crafted meals. Her familiar shared her experience and grew from feasting on the flesh of its enemies.

Monique and Jonah were new additions, but they were not just a good help in Seth's training. They also helped Tekar develop his fighting style with two shields against humanoid opponents. Evee could also train her <Closequaters Combat (CQC)> against them.

The punches of her steel fists were quite powerful, but she always ended up injuring herself. She lacked other skills of a fist-fighter that would protect their knuckles. In exchange, she had <Automatic HP-Recovery> which increased her regeneration to an almost visible level.

Sometimes Seth watched her fight and almost had the urge to add extendable mithril claws to her fists. She definitely needed a pair of sturdy gauntlets. Her time as an undead had made her completely oblivious to pain and the fear of death. Jonah had to beat her up several times until she realized that pain was a thing.

All in all, the party had gotten to know each other in the last week and Seth thought they were ready.

"Boss, I still didn't get an armor, is that okay?" Jonah asked in his seductive voice that sent a shiver down his back.

"Ah, yes. I'm still working on it. It's definitely not that I dislike leatherwork and use the dungeon dive as an excuse to make it later." he explained himself, or not.

"Oh, ok, Boss. I just wanted to ask," he said a little baffled.

After this slightly awkward moment passed, they decided to prepare today and visit a dungeon tomorrow.

Seth had waited with distributing his attribute point until now. Which was a nice way of saying he had forgotten about it while he thought of crafting. He had 52 AP to allocate. Until now he had distributed his points rather widespread, but this time he focused on Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower. He put 16 points into strength reaching one hundred.

<Ding! Title: "Stronk" gained. " You have reached 100p of strength!" +0,5 physical damage per 1p Strength.>

Seth was baffled when he heard this. The title improved the multiplier for the attribute. All stats had these multipliers pertaining a value, just like intelligence on mana or willpower on the hidden value mental force. He knew that these were normally based on your class and race. They dictated what multipliers would improve with every 10 levels and by how much.

Seth was a blacksmith so the multipliers for dexterity and strength improved slightly with every tenth level.

Seeing this he proceeded to add 19 points to dexterity getting a similar message.

<Ding! Title: "Twinkle Fingers" gained. " You have reached 100p of dexterity!" +0,5 ranged damage per 1p Dexterity.>

He moaned when he realized that he had not enough left to bring his willpower to 100. He added the 17 points to bring it to 98.

To be honest, he really wanted to dodge making the leather armor for the time being. The reason was the arrival of materials. He wasn't slacking!

There was a piece of equipment he had wanted to replace for a while, his necklace! The pendant of the Nightcrawler and served him well, but now he wanted to retire it and make something even better.

For this, he had gotten a special something, the crystal eyes of a hundred-eyed giant. He had long learned the enchantment for night vision, and he wanted to improve on that. Seth made a socket from <Mithril> for the light blue crystal eye. He forged a copy from a big soul and engraved it with the complex circuits of Night vision and Clairvoyance.

Clairvoyance acted like a zoom. With it, he could see places much further away than normally possible and it improved his visions itself. It would be a big advantage when shooting the bow. He would not just have a scope, but he could also see clear as day, even in the deepest night.

Several notices came up as he lowered the new pendant into the water of Styx.

<Ding! You have finished an epic item! You gained Proficiency.> <Ding! The item has evolved thanks to the synergy of the item and your trait "Olympian Myth"> <Ding! Your trait "Olympian myth" has slightly strengthened overall.>

<Ding! Skill: Goldsmith (Journeyman) lv.1 has become Goldsmith (Journeyman) lv.2!>

<Eyes of Argus

Epic

Durability 2222

1. Your eyesight becomes sharp as an eagles

2.+30% Mana regeneration

3.Casting Time is Reduced by 25%

4. Passive Skill: Night Vision

5. Passive Skill: Clairvoyance

6. Passive Skill: Clear Vision

7. Passive Skill: Expanded Field of Vision

"I see everything! Unless my eyes are closed."

An amulet created by the deft hand of Journeyman Smith. It attained mystic qualities through unknown means even its maker does not quite understand.

Requirements: Seth Smith>

It had actually worked! This was not just to improve on his previous necklace, but also as a test. He had specifically tried to make an item pertaining to a figure from Olympian mythology. Seth had been reading up on Olympian myths in the church's library. There were a lot more than he had remembered or ever known.

Argos was known as the all-seeing giant. With his over 100 eyes he could see everything around him, and the eyes took turns in sleeping and blinking. In the myth he was tasked by Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, to guard her husband's cow lover.

This was one of the mistresses of Zeus he had turned into a cow to hide her from his wife. Argos watched her day and night making it hard for Zeus to have his fun. He probably wasn't into being watched or something.

Zeus had Hermes slay the poor Argos. Now he was able to have his fun. He turned into a bull and had his little private time with his cow-turned lover.

Killing some poor giant dude to fuck a cow... Seth found this rather off-putting. Why didn't he just turn her back into a woman? Nobody was watching anymore, right? Seth didn't want to judge Zeus, but he failed. He was rather glad not to have that guy's blessing.

But this myth had nothing to do with Hephaistos or Hades. This meant that he could also make items connected to other Olympian gods, as long as the item he made was close enough in performance to trigger a synergy.

The eye of Argos gave a row of passive skills. Night Vision and Clairvoyance were his enchantments, He understood Clear Sight as a skill to lift the veil on the world and see through illusions.

As for the Expanded field of Vision, Seth had no idea until he wore the amulet. He almost puked and had to deactivate the passive skill. His head throbbed and his breathing was heavy.

Expanded Field of Vision meant that he had literally a 360° field of view. He was not prepared, and his mind was instantly overloaded. That Option would need some getting used to.

A much smaller change came from Clear Sight and Seth only noticed it after calming down. It showed the world how it truly was, seeing through illusions was a result of this effect, but not the end goal.

He could see a very transparent current of something flowing through the air. Was this mana?