Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"What did you say?!" Lydia exclaimed and Seth had to hug her tightly to avoid getting a full view of her body.

Originally, the Field service was made up of 2 teams, Yulecat's Fur and his party now led by Monique. However, it was always the plan to expand these teams, once the Oathguard was founded.

They were the high-level teams that would farm difficult dungeons for loot.

Seth had seen Lydia getting along quite well with Azul and Archer, two of probably the most powerful new members. Since she managed to befriend them in a matter of days, why not offer him this position?

"Yeah, I saw you get along with Azul and Archer. With you, there are already three. How about you choose a few people from the Oathguard for a third Field Service team?" he suggested.

Although she would not be able to join the Lords who were defined as the founding members, being the leader of a Field Team was equivalent in status.

This meant she had the authority to command and choose members of the Oathguard for her team. It also meant she could ask Seth for personalized Equipment.

Previously, as a member of the Willis Family, she was always excluded from the big decisions and never had a chance to prove herself. It made her double happy for the chance to shine in her new home.

"Yes! I will get to it right away!"

"Maybe you should get dressed first..." he commented, covering his eyes.

"Pff, don't act like that. There, I am all dressed." she scoffed. She said her goodbyes in a hurry and ran off to catch Azul and Archer.

Seth looked after her for a moment. It was finally quiet again. He sat at the table and kept going over the things they had talked about and what he needed to do from now on.

The knowledge he gained from the manual kept popping off new ideas in his brain like fireworks, but he couldn't stop thinking about one thing.

"Al, you will help in that matter with beta right?"

~...Yes. ~

"You can be there faster than two weeks, right...?"

~... of course. is everything okay? ~

"Sure..."

~ It would be more believable if you weren't crushing the armrest right now...~

"Oh... I'm just having a hard time convincing myself that not rushing off is the right decision."

~What are you worried about? You trust Jonah, right? And he has the Oathguard with him. Once you made my vessel, we rush there in a matter of hours. ~ the lich kept urging him.

"Fine."

He got up and stretched.

"Then let's get started on your oh so precious body..."

Seth had missed a lot of things and would have liked to relax for a few more days. Like visiting the bard academy, going on a date with Mina, or playing games with Fin. However, he couldn't calm down after reading that letter.

Drosi and his people were in danger, but he couldn't just run off. If h couldn't stop thinking about the situation, he put his effort into solving it somehow.

The blacksmith returned to his Sethcave after being gone for several weeks. Thanks to the maintenance system of Minas Mar, there was no dirt or dust at all. It was a little surreal to him, that the workshop looked no different from the last time he was here.

As if he had never left.

Except for a meal with his friends, Seth spent the rest of the day here and worked on the blueprints for Al'Zalsar's new body. Using his <Blueprint> skill he thoroughly planned through all the steps, memorized them, and tweaked them here and there.

<Ding! Your Skill Blueprint lv. 4 has become Blueprint lv. 5!>

He heard the notification right after he finished completing his work on the blueprints for the new vessel. It had been ages since <Blueprint> had leveled up. Mostly because he had not been using it a lot ever since his skills had grown.

Despite that, it might play a big role in the future, as Seth had decided to choose the trait <Blood of the Inventor>. With the new knowledge injected into his brain, he saw a lot of new possibilities for the future, aside from Weapons.

He remembered the souls he had collected back then when the caravan was attacked by the remnants of the Theocracy. He had taken them because those people had begged for their lives.

At that time, he had no other option to help them. Although the chances were slim, Seth thought the best he might be able to do was preserve their ego and turn them into an ego weapon. Now, he might be able to revive them as arcane cyborgs.

This was why <Blueprint> grew in importance. The skill made especially the planning and theoretical testing of creations much easier. There was also the system guidance that could help him get used to the production process.

After finishing the planning phase, Seth sat down and pondered for a moment, before finally selecting <Blood of the Inventor> as the trait of his class advancement.

<Ding! Your primary class has advanced!>

<Ding! New Skills have been added to your Skill Window! Please Check! >

<Ding! Because of the Advancement of your Primary class, some of your skills have gained additional options. Please check!"

Messages rang in his head. He lamented that there were no patch notes for changes like this. He needed to search for changes and improvements, himself. It was easy to see the new skills.

There was the passive skill <Engineer>, which lend overall improvements to devices and blueprinting items that were neither weapons nor armor.

The other new skill of called <Golem Artisan>. This was the skill that made him realize what the class advancement meant for a unique class. Since it was literally unique, one either created or inherited the class.

The class advancement for Seth was a possibility to choose one of the paths his predecessor had already walked and unlock skills that were originally not part of the basic class.

As an example, if Seth ever died and someone else became the Spirit Blacksmith, they would probably have <Kin of Fire> as an advancement option, as this was something not part of the base class, but a trait he attained through his own work.

This realization came to him, because <Golem Artisan> was very similar to Al'Salzar's idea, but it leaned more into the direction of Golems than automatons. Cerberus was most likely a product of this skill.

The biggest difference was that this method was a lot easier. It implemented engraving the formations used on a golem core, on a soul. What kind of materials the body could be formed of, the intelligence of the Golem, and the skills it would be able to use:

The resulting Golem's overall performance was solely based on the strength and quality of the Soul used in the production.

This method skipped all the theoretical stuff Al'Salzar had thrown at him, just like the token Seth had made. Technically, the token was an accidental implementation of this skill.

The fact Al'Salzar was able to materialize her own, human body, just bore witness to her power as she managed to recreate the perfect body for herself.

But just like the Token, this method was very inefficient and squandered a lot of potential. The result would vary a great deal. In comparison, if Seth produced a vessel first, while the soul only acted as the control unit, the resulting strength would mostly depend on the materials used in the production.

Two ways to a similar result. It reminded Seth of the difference between human and dwarven blacksmiths. Dwarves would swear on their skill and using the perfect materials for the best results.

Humans on the other hand would find ways through technological methods to compromise for the lack of materials or skills.

If one had a huge supply of strong souls where optimization did not make a difference, who would bother with intricate and time-consuming work?

This made Seth think of his predecessor. Just what kind of person was he to have a constant supply of huge or high-quality souls, that he didn't bother with creating the vessel first? Seth did not think for even a second, that his predecessor did not think of it.

~ You can think about dead people at a later time. Weren't you in a hurry? ~ the lich pulled him out of his thoughts.

She was right, it was not the time to worry about those things. It was good that he had two new skills that supplied him with knowledge and benefits. He could use any help he could get for Al'Salzar's body.v