Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

On the day before their departure, Seth sorted his inventory and made sure he had everything he wanted to take along. With the help of Cerberus, he had made a good number of weapons fit for the auctions. Samuel had already made a deal with the church in Delta, so Seth would get his money from them.

Unfortunately, Puffles had holed up in the pet space with those 45 bars of metal Tore had sent. The Ivicer had not yet spit out any new <Celestial Bronze>. Seth wrote a letter to Nädel and the dwarven master about their journey and the fact that Puffles was unresponsive.

Before he left Y-City once and for all he wanted to test out those weasel souls and see what their effect was. As he thought about what to do his eyes fell on the rest of the newt leather from Jonah's armor.

It was enough left to make himself a nice belt. Like this, he could substitute the loss in additional health regeneration from changing his necklace. Seth used some of the <Fey Steel> for the buckle and cut a strap of leather for the belt.

Seth did not bother making something fancy, because in the end, it was mostly a way to test the weasel soul. The belt without anything was a rare item simply because of the materials used. He made an identical belt from a weasel soul and enchanted it with strength and agility.

The result came as a great surprise to Seth.

< Charismatic Newttail

Epic

Mag. Defence: 150

Phys.Defense: 150

Durability: 340

1. +30% HP-regen

2. +10% Mana-regen

3. grants the passive skill Illusion Magic (Apprentice) lv.4

4. +20% effectiveness to all illusion-based skills

5. +20 Personality

6. +35 Strength

7.+35 Agility

8. Grants the Spells: Charm, Light

A belt made from the leather of the swamp newt created by the deft hands of Journeyman Smith. It is imbued with a mysterious effect that will increase your favorability. It will keep you healthy like a grandma's chicken soup and every grandma willing to make you one.>

Before he believed this, he needed to test it again. He made a simple ring from <Dwarven Copper> and infused it with another weasel soul.

< Ring of Disguise

Uncommon

Durability: 130

1. Grants the passive skill Illusion Magic (Apprentice) lv.1

2. Grants the Spell: Disguise

3. +50% success chance for the spell "Disguise"

A mysterious Ring made by Journeyman Smith. It has some peculiar abilities.>

It was true! These souls could actually grant the skills of their owners. Until now an item would only grant a skill under very special conditions and often only in conjuncture with the enchantments. With this he could... no he shouldn't think about it in this way.

He would not become a homicidal maniac to collect skills. But it didn't mean he could keep an eye out. What skills would monster souls give after he harvested them this way? Could he also strengthen souls and like this and gain various effects this way?

He could collect skills he lacked in his class and maybe puzzle them together in one soul? This was really interesting the only downside was that he needed to get the mob very close to death to harvest the soul.

It was not sure that souls harvested from undead had the same effect. Undead were normally quite dumb and had few skills or memories. Seth shook his head. It was not the time to daydream.

He still wanted to sort out his inventory and then visit the market again. As Seth sifted through the things in his inventory, he found the box with item boxes from the weasel beasts. Back then he had simply thrown these into a chest and put them away in his inventory.

There were about 50-60 item boxes. Most of them had some system currency and credits besides money there were some books and weapons. The last items were just constructs that would vanish after some time. He would give these books to Alison, maybe she could use them for something.

Although there were no valuable items, the currency added up to 200 gold and about 3 million credits. These things had really made the people bleed. They should really give back a little.

Seth had another 17 weasel souls. He used 7 to strengthen the one in his belt. The level of the illusion magic rose to 7, additional Personality became 40, and effectiveness of illusion-based skills became 25%. The spells Appease Humanoids, appease beasts and provoke were also added.

He made another 10 rings with the rest of the souls. They all were similar in the way that they granted illusion magic and a spell. Instead of directly infusing them he turned them into soul armament and enchanted them with intelligence +35.

Was it a waste of souls? Maybe. But Seth actually had little will to really use the souls of these things for himself or his party. It felt grimy. It was better if he got rid of these souls and helped the people of Y-City with it. It was like a farewell gift.

He used the <Dwarven Copper> for these rings and most came out uncommon. Some were even rare. It depended on the skills they granted. Spells like disguise and appease were most often.

In Seth's opinion it was not so much about the spells granted, but about the skill <Illusion magic>. This enabled the wearer to learn the spells themself. Maybe they could even get the magic spell if they used it often enough.

Being able to deceive your opponent or cast a mirage was always a good card in one's arsenal.

It did not take long to make these simple rings. It was still early noon. Seth had lunch and left the church. Besides the cloak, he also used one of the disguise rings. Coupled with the skill level of his belt he could easily hide his features.

This time Seth visited a different market. He paid the fee and spread out a blanket on the ground. He put down 15 rings before him and put down a black fabric in them so nobody could cheat with appraisal skills. Next, he up a few signs.

"Ring Gacha! 30% Chance for Uncommon, ~5% Chance for Rare!"

"Sale!"

"5 Silver or 5000 credits per try "

"1 try per person."

"No money-back guarantee!"

Now he was more of a shady than a mysterious merchant. But that was good, too. People soon started to gather around his little stall. And like he had expected many of them were appraise that saw their chance.

Even though they could not cheat, they could sell their skill to the customers to appraise their purchase. But people were skeptical, and nobody wanted to be the first.

"Very first customer gets to try for 2 silvers," Seth said annoyed at the hesitance.

"Me!" "Me!" "Me!"

Seth pointed at someone in dirty clothes and some bandaged wounds. He had not jumped forward when he mentioned the discount, but his face had slightly lit up with hope. Al also commented that he had an ordinary class, but the skills were all a very good level compared to the average adventurer. That's why he chose him.

"Come here. There are 15 rings under this fabric. Point at the one you want, and I let you take it after you paid."

With a shaky hand, he gave Seth two smudgy silver coins and pointed at one at the corner of the field. Seth lifted the corner and the young man picked up the ring he had pointed at.

"My friend! I am an uncommon appraiser! Would you let me have a look at your purchase?"

The appraiser's face froze in surprise for a moment before he told the man the effects of the ring and immediately got in line at the stall. This was more than enough of a message to tell people that the stuff was genuine.

Seth was occupied by shuffling the rings. He had put a box on the ring so no appraiser could get a look at them. And even if they did before, now the rings were shuffled.