Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth was dismayed. His dream of 100% resistance to disease and poison was gone! He should have guessed it as it mentioned a limit. Charon's Physique.

He had just infused 5 souls when resistance to disease stopped growing but there was hope, as another effect appeared. Resistance to decay. Seth kept infusing up to ten souls when all values stopped growing and did not budge even when he infused another soul.

<Charon's Physique

Mag. Def.: 860

1. 60% Resistance to Diseases

2. 50% Poison Resistance

3. 20% Resistance to Decay

A bangle created by Craftsman Smith with the stoic approval of a divine being. >

Although he was slightly disappointed, he was still happy about this. These were some of the most annoying debuffs not just in games. Being poisoned, whether by a skill or by a beast's venom was very painful in real life.

It wasn't just some DOT where you watched the HP bar tick down slowly but true pain. A feeling like acid pumping through your veins and actively corrode your body.

Together with the resistances he had gained from food and skill, he now had 70% Poison resistance and 82% disease resistance. It didn't just mean that weaker poisons and diseases had little chance to work on him, but effective poisons would also be less harmful.

In all the chaos he had almost forgotten to check his skill. Had he missed the level-up notification in his joy?

No, because he had not reached <Enchantment Lv. 2>, yet! The proficiency bar was still a tiny, almost imperceivable, sliver away from the 100% mark. What else was he supposed to do now?

He thought for a moment when Puffles suddenly said

~ Why don't you just enchant one of the items you already made? That way you can even see whether these behave the same way as the other enchantments did. ~

"That's not a bad idea for once..."

~ Haha, yes! When your pea brain is stuck, don't wait to ask the great me for the advice! - Wait! Hey, did you imply I ever had bad ideas?! ~

Seth gave the caterpillar the silent treatment as he brought out the item of his test. It was the chainmail shirt made of <Bones of Seth>. It was a failure. He was right that the many thousands of effects would get in each other's way, but they also made it impossible to add any more effects, not even with <Soul Infusion>.

He added a small badge on the chest of the chain mail to engrave the sigil. Something like this normally didn't work with ordinary enchantment, but Seth relied on the weird feature that the sigil would grow on its own.

The enchantment he chose was < Ice of Cocytos> as he was sure to never use that one for any of his own equipment. Unlike the blessings, there was no presence this time.

The moment Seth finished the engraving the shirt's rings were covered in tiny engraving and exuded a terrifying cold and he had to let the chain mail fall to the ground to not get cold damage.

<Ding! Your skill Enchantment Lv.1 has become Enchantment Lv.2!>

<Cocytos's Chain Shirt

Unique

Phys. Def. 900

Mag. Def.300

Durability: 5000

1. 300 true Ice Damage on touch

2. 50 true Ice Damage per Second in a radius of 5m

3. 65% Chance to cause indiscriminate slow in a radius of 10m

4. PR/?%5;OV0&R(!S

A hazardous piece of armor created by the cooperation of Craftsmen Seth and Cerberus.

The scrambled effects of the chain mail were still there but had been overpowered, but it was now more or less a cursed item. Still, it helped Seth affirm something important. The divine enchantments would not erase the previous effects of the items.

A big weight fell off his heart. This meant he could use them on items without fearing to lose the material's effects. And now he had another set of enchantments to choose from. The easiest to understand was the <Blessing of Styx>

<Blessing of Styx,

Ever since her Champion Achilleus wreaked havoc on the battlefield it was coveted by many Heroes. Though she never blessed anyone like her half-brother ever again. >

Wasn't Achilleus invincible or something? So, it's defense, I guess? he thought to himself. Seth chose to make bracers for the <Blessing of Styx>. He imitated a pair of tight-fitting leather bracers that could be tightened. They went well with the bangle.

The sigil of Styx resembled a tight knot and as Seth engraved it onto the right bracer, he felt a wise gaze resting on his shoulders. Satisfaction mixed into this feeling as Seth finished the sigil and a net of tight ropes and chains engraved itself all over the bracers.

<Styx's Guard

Mag. Def.90

1. +50 Defense

A special armor created by Craftsman Smith and blessed by a divine being.>

Just as he had suspected. Seth added 5 medium-sized souls as he did with Persephone's Necklace to see what would happen.

<Styx's Guard

Mag. Def.90

1. +250 Defense

2. +25 Endurance

3. +5% Defense when Blocking

A special armor created by Craftsman Smith and blessed by a divine being.>

This growth was surprisingly good! Seth went right ahead and infused a big soul to see if there were limits.

<Styx's Guard

Mag. Def.960

1. +500 Defense

2. +75 Endurance

3. +15% Defense when Blocking

A special armor created by Craftsman Smith and blessed by a divine being.>

When Seth added another medium-sized soul- everything increased a little, but the amount had gotten less. He added another 4. Endurance stopped growing at 100 and the additional defense at 20% when blocking.

The Defense kept increasing but Seth judged that this was enough for now. There were still more enchantmen...ments. Things turned foggy before his eyes and he managed to fall on his bed before he lost consciousness.

It seemed that he had worked a lot longer than he had expected...

"How long did I sleep?"

~ A few hours. You are really pushing it. It's as if you don't feel the time when working on your gear. ~

Seth could hear some worry swing within her voice in his head. He rubbed his temples. She was right. He drank way too little and it seemed like the enchantments took longer than he perceived.

"What day is it?"

~ It's the evening of the third day.~ Puffles answered. He wasn't boastful this time and his tone was more blaming. It might be wrong, but Seth was happy that the two cared about him that much.

"I'm sorry, I will take better care of myself."

He still had three days until those bastards returned. There were still some things to do. Seth had another two enchantments he wanted to turn into soul armaments.

The other enchantments gave him more inspiration for actual items instead of making soul armaments out of them. He could use them to finish some of his items he had left unfinished before.

Although the little bit of sleep he had gotten helped, he was still exhausted. He would have loved a break, but he knew that he could not afford one. If he managed to finish everything on the fifth day he would have a full day to collect information before his disappearance would become known.

First things first, to finish his soul gear for now he chose <Hands of the Hecatoncheires> and <Craft of Oknos>. Seth guesses that at least one of them would give him dexterity. He knew too little about these myths to make a good guess.

Fortunately, he didn't need to worry too much as he started off with medium-sized souls, so he would find out their effects before paying too high a price. Seth used the first one on a pair of pauldrons in the look of smooth leather that somewhat fit the ancient breast plate's design.

The sigil resembled some kind of octopus? He couldn't really make sense of it. Maybe there was none. He was glad that there was no presence on these, as those had quite the impact on his nerves.

When he finished the sigil, the pauldrons were covered in a pattern of reiteration imaged. Were these...arms?

< Hecatoncheires' Shoulders

Mag. Def.: 76

1.+30 Strength

A special armor created by Craftsman Smith and enchanted with divine power.>

With 9 medium souls, the additional strength became 100 but there were no other effects. Maybe there were more effects if he kept strengthening it, but he did not really want to experiment on it right now.

The <Craft of Oknos> resembled a rope with a moth on one end and a pair of hands on the other. Seth was uneducated on who Oknos was so he couldn't make sense of the sigil. The description was also not very helpful.

<Craft of Oknos

Tap into Oknos' most trained craft.>

What was he supposed to know from that? Like before with Charon's Blessing, he decided to make a bangle. He thought the sigil could look quite good when the hands and mouth met at one point. Also, symmetry.

After engraving the bangle was covered in a floral pattern like grass or straw. As he thought, it granted a boost of 30 dexterity. In the same way, as before it took about 10 souls for the boost to reach 100. As just like the pauldrons, there was no other effect for now.

< Okno's Hands

Mag. Def.: 740

1.+100 Dexterity

A special armor created by Craftsman Smith and enchanted with divine power.>

Seth felt a little bummed out with these two. They were great, but compared to what he had seen so far, they felt a little bland. On the other hand, they had not felt as taxing. He looked at the window, and the night was still dark.

So not to further worry his two guests in his head Seth took a break. He ate and drank from the food in his inventory and took some time to just lay down and relax.