Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"I was told that you wish to sell an item, A very precious item." Dave cut right to the case.

"Yes. It is an epic-rated necklace. Unfortunately, there is no appraiser in this place that can back my information." Seth sighed disappointedly.

"Of course, that is a problem. But it can be easily solved once someone wears it and confirms its effectiveness. What can it do, again?" Dave said understanding.

"One of the options is the problem. Once someone equips it, it will be soul-bound to that person. At that point, nobody can take it back or steal it. Even if that person dies, the items will be useless. Other than that, it increases the strength and agility of the wearer by 50, Mana by 300, and grants a passive skill called Strengthening"

Dave smiled understandingly, but it was actually a smug smile. Originally, he wanted to use a test to simply steal the item while pushing the blame on a third party. Now, as long as he could get his hand on the item, there was no getting it back from him!

"Could I see the item?" he asked excitedly.

One had to know that as someone with a level of 64, the Big Boss of hope already owned some epic-rated items from dungeon raids. However, jewelry drops were rare in general and those with a higher rating almost nonexistent.

Respectively big was his greed for such an item.

"Of course, but first I would like to know whether you can pay my price."

"I would not have invited you, if I couldn't. Three Weeks of rations for an expedition of over 400 people, right? It is stored in the basement."

Dave suppressed his laughter. The price was fair, yes. But who would really pay that much for a necklace? The moment he got his hand on it, his boys would take care of this man and his caravan. He could only blame himself for treasuring a jade ring.

"I am sorry, if this may sound rude. But can I see it? Once I am sure you can pay, I do not mind to commence the trade." the young asked warily.

"Of course, let's go. Business should never be left waiting." Dave said happily.

He and his cronies led the caravan leader back to the elevator and drove down to the basement. This was the private storage of Big Dave. The place they left the elevator had been an underground parking lot.

Now, it was filled with wooden barrels and bags all the way to the ceiling.

"These are bags of flour, potatoes and rice. The barrels contain fruits and pickled fish. This should be enough to feed 400 people for three to four weeks."

"Are you really willing to trade all of this for a single pendant?" the young man asked, intimidated by the mass of goods.

"I am a man of my word! All of this, in exchange for an epic item is more than fair," he said with a wolfish grin behind the man's back.

"Great!" Seth exclaimed and finally brought out a small box. "I am satisfied with this deal. It will take a while to store all the rations. I will give you this in advance, so you can assure yourself of its power." he said with a big smile.

------

The blacksmith opened the lid and showed it to Big Dave, unable to hide his more than satisfied smile.

The big man immediately grabbed the pendant form the box and started laughing maniacally.

"You do nothing of the sort, you fool. Get him, men!"

"Oh no, what are you doing?!" Seth played shocked as he was pushed back by the crime lord's bodyguards.

"Hahaha! Nobody will come to help you! You can only blame your own naivety!" Dave said and put on the pendant while Seth fought off the attacks of his henchmen. When he put it on, the necklace actually sunk into his skin and turned into a tattoo that could not be taken off.

"I can feel it! The power! YES!" Dave said and laughed.

He laughed so much that Seth got really confused. Was he really that happy about the necklace? Seth had made many rare items with a higher performance than the necklace. Was Dave just mentally ill?

Seth just fended off the guards' vain attempt to subdue him as he waited. Soon enough, the hysteric laughter turned into gasping and wheezing. A knowing smile appeared on the blacksmith's face. The Whimsical Curse had found its new owner.

<Whimsical Curse

Relic

Durability: 3500

1. Curse of Binding

2. Passive Skill: Strengthening

3. Passive Skill: Whimsical Power

4. + 25 Strength

5.+300 Mana

A terrifying pendant and necklace created by the maleficent hands of Craftsman Smith. Created with an amalgamation of superior craftsmanship and mysterious techniques, it is a work of pure malicious intent.

If the notoriety of the pendant grows in the future, it may evolve into a legendary item. >

Truly, a piece of jewelry one would not wish to wear. The materials Seth used were another reason for his good mood back when he finished it.

The Curse of Binding had the effect that the user would be unable to take off the item until it broke. This effect came from a ring that was originally made for the Chainmail made from the <Bones of Seth>. This curse was the manifestation of the material's random effects.

The passive Strengthening Skill had a similar origin. During his experiments with volatile Zinc, he had made a small bar of a unique material called <Feeding Brass>. The material inherently ate away at the lifeforce of anyone and anything it touched.

Seth coupled this with the blooddrinker ballad, which created the passive skill that would constantly eat away at the wearer's life to repair and increase the durability of the item. This meant it could virtually not be broken, unless someone managed to destroy it in one attack.

Whimsical Power influenced the amount of life the necklace would drain from the wearer. This was a weird effect that came into existence, because Seth wanted to see what the ego souls of the monkeys would do.

He had even fused some of the confused and resentful monkey souls for this, turning them even more vengeful and deranged. The wilder and unhappy the apes were, the more life would be drained while it would lessen if they were calm.

How to calm a bunch of vengeful monkey souls that were shoved into an item? Who even knew something like that? Seth didn't.

Seth threw in the increase in strength, so the wearer would be fooled by the initial boost in strength, and not immediately notice his life draining away. Even if someone had a high health regeneration, at best it would cancel out the effect.

The best part was that all effects complimented each other in killing the wearer. One needed to break the item to save the own life. But this would upset the monkeys and the item would grow stronger and repair itself by draining away even more life.

The perfect vicious circle.

Seeing, the item work as intended, Seth did not waste much time to disable the men attacking him. Then he approached their boss who was desperately trying to take off the necklace again.

"W-What have you done to me!?"

Dave, the voluminous man Seth had met just a few hours ago, already started to look sickly and aged as he drank health potions like water.

"What have I done?" Seth blinked in confusion. Then he showed him a big smile. "You can only blame your own naivety, was it? Actually, you made a good deal, really. This item is actually relic-rated. It is even better than an epic item." he told him before he turned to the storage.

Seth calmly started storing the rations in his inventory while Dave was holding on for dear life in his hopeless fight against his new item.

At least the gangster had not lied. Here was more than enough stuff to feed the caravan for a while. It took a while for him to loot the place clean and store all the stuff. It filled 10 of his inventory slots and Seth was really glad that he had more than enough after completing the system quest so often.

When he was done, he turned to leave, surprised, he found Dave had already turned into a desiccated old man.

"Please! Save me..." he whispered, barely able to reach out his hand to Seth.

This was... odd. The blacksmith was sure that the item was not this strong. How had a big man like Dave turned into this over the span of just half an hour?

Before Seth had the chance to deny the man his help, the man died. His eyes became murky and the reached-out arm fell limp. Finally, the corpse crumbled to dust. Seth did not want to touch the ashes, but he managed to fish out the Whimsical Curse, and the small black item box.

The item box held a couple hundred gold, a couple hundred silver and several thousand bronze coins. This man had been loaded! As you would expect from someone leeching off a whole city. There was nothing noteworthy besides the money.

Some of the items could be distributed to the caravan members, but that was all. The bigger surprise came when he checked the necklace.

<Whimsical Curse

Relic

Durability: 5100

1. Curse of Binding

2. Passive Skill: Strengthening

3. Passive Skill: Whimsical Power

4. +30 Strength

5.+400 Mana

A terrifying pendant and necklace created by the maleficent hands of Craftsman Smith. Created with an amalgamation of superior craftsmanship and mysterious techniques, it is a work of pure malicious intent.

If the notoriety of the pendant grows in the future, it may evolve into a legendary item. >

The durability had made a huge jump, but the weird part was that the mana and additional strength had increased.

~You probably underestimated the brass~ Al commented.

After realizing what that meant, Seth hurriedly put the necklace away. If he had really miscalculated the power of the brass, then this necklace was a lot more terrifying than he had initially thought.

As it sucked away the life force it did not only strengthen the durability of the item but also, its effects. This included the strength of the life drain. A life drain that would constantly become stronger by draining life...