Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The damage even rivaled his Draconic blade! It was a shame that a pickaxe was a rather wieldy tool that lacked any dedicated attack skills. Still, with these kinds of enchantments, nobody would want to be struck by it.

When he checked the skill, to see what the synergy had caused, he found a few changes.

<Active Skill: Piercing Strike, No Cost, Cooldown: 30 seconds.

Ignore the target's armor and deal 350% true damage to the target. >

The cooldown had lowered because of the strengthened soul, but the damage effect had absorbed the effects of the "Pierce" enchantment that should have increased the power of stabs and piercing strikes by 150%.

Seth didn't know whether this was good or bad. If this was a weapon like a spear, he personally might have preferred to keep increased attack for every attack.

As for its effects on mining, Seth quickly became aware when he tried it on the corpse of the stone giant in the dismantling hall. He activated <Piercing Strike> and swung at the dead chrysopras' corpse.

The pick penetrated the material like it was jelly and Seth felt almost no resistance. In a radius of 40cm around the gouge of the attack, the outer shell of the giant crumbled into a coarse granulate.

Seth stared at the 80cm wide gouge in shock. It felt like using a shaper tool in a 3D-Program... he couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from rising.

But it did not end there.

BOOM!

When he tried <Armor break> a part of similar size outright exploded in his face with chunks and pebbles of extremely hard rock flying through the dismantling hall.

In addition to these skills, the normal use of the pickaxe was also a vast improvement to his previous one. Enthusiastically Seth started exploring the anatomy of the stone giant by grinding its body to dust and rubble.

Despite not being an ore, Seth meticulously collected these stones, too.

Something had changed since the class advancement. His <Blacksmith's Eyes> had changed. Before Seth was unable to appraise the material of the Stone giant's skin but now, when he picked up the stones and rubble, he was able to appraise it just fine.

<Stone Hide, Crafting Material, Rare

The incredibly hard hide of a stone giant. It has a high resistance to physical and magical influence. Despite its hardness rivaling Obsidian, it is not nearly as brittle. The corpses of stone giants who died a natural death have often become the foundation for the strongest fortifications in history.>

The description made pretty clear why Seth was unable to appraise this before. It was a material meant for masonry and less for blacksmithing. Especially the first sentence made it quite clear. Since this stone was highly resistant to magical influence, it made blacksmiths unable to forge it by using < Energy Circulation>.

Like a gem, this could only be cut or sculpted.

Past the hard hide, came a layer of softer stone Seth was once again unable to appraise. What did this mean? Shouldn't a mason or sculptor be able to appraise all kinds of minerals?

That was unless <Blacksmith's Eyes> were not simply augmented with the range of a mason job. Seth had enough time to think about it as he worked on the gigantic corpse.

If he was suddenly able to appraise one stone, but not the other, it meant that it had to do with his new skills. The most probable suspect was <Golem Artisan>. Thinking of Golems, it would make sense that a material like <Stone Hide> was recognized as a material.

This meant the stone that made up the flesh of the giant was not useful for golem creation. Still, Seth meticulously stored these stones away, too. They weren't worthless, only because he couldn't immediately see the worth.

Seth soon fell into a routine, where he worked without much thought. It was oddly satisfying to grind away the stone with ease. Like a machine, he kept cutting away at the giant until he finally reached the bones.

The pickaxe almost slipped out of his hands in surprise when he revealed the bone. Like a massive vein, the bones were made up of <Heavy Wugrum Ore> and the marrow was pure <Wugrum>. Seth remembered the material from his match with Cerberus.

Was this where <Wurgrum> came from? No wonder he had been unable to find it in the auction house.

<Heavy Wugrum Ore, Crafting material, Rare

A very rare mineral that is only sparsely found in nature. A natural compound of <Wugrum>. This ore can be refined to <Heavy Wugrum>

>

<Wugrum, Crafting Material, Epic

A metal that can normally not be found in nature. A very dense metal with high magic and earth affinity that can easily enter chemical compounds and alloys with other materials of the same element.>

Seth knew of <Heavy Wurgum>, but the latter was his first encounter with pure <Wugrum>. He decided to ask Al later whether she knew any more about this. Although he was a little clueless about the <Wurgum>, just the amount of epic metal cast a smile on his face.

Especially <Heavy Wugrum> was a material Seth greeted with open arms. With this and the adamantium, he could finally make a worthy Armor for Tekar, not to mention the possibilities for golems.

This was not the end. Aside from the bones, Seth found thin veins of <Fey Metal> like nerves, thick <Mithril Ore> strands that probably acted as tendons, and the brain made of <Arcane Gold Ore>, that he had already seen before.

There were also its teeth, that were brick-shaped rocks, for chewing other rocks and minerals.

He was bathed in sweat and tired when the fatigue finally caught up. Not even half of the giant's body was mined yet, but Seth's inventory was already filled to the brim with materials. Even if he refined down all the ores, it was too much to keep it all in his inventory.

The big treasury in his private quarters would finally see some proper use!

Seth put the other half of the body back in his inventory and returned to his quarters to get some sleep. Seeing Mina already sleeping in their bed made him smile wryly. She had been at the dungeons, and he had not known she had already returned.

He decided to take a break tomorrow and spend time with her and relax. What was the use behind all the work, if he couldn't enjoy the important things in life?

He washed up, changed, and snuggled up to her before falling asleep.

And he did exactly that-

In the end, it became a few days of break. Most of it he spent with Mina and Fin. He also went to look after Pip to see if she was doing well. The girl and her friends were getting along well with Otto, the pharmacist.

Drosi and his people were also slowly recovering from their experiences in Beta. Although they were physically okay, their morale had gotten a few cracks and breaks.

As an old coot, Drosi was not easy to demotivate, but it was different for the younger people. The Tijaahk were known as dimensional nomads, but they would also sometimes choose to settle down if they found a good place.

Younger generations would then set off again from there. Usually, they would be traveling for a few decades before settling down, but now many insisted on staying with Minas Mar.

While Drosi would have liked to insist on traveling like they used to, he also understood the younglings. Making their women and children travel in this world was irresponsible if there was a safe place for them to stay.

With many of the young couples recently expecting offspring, they would stay at Minas Mar for quite a while. Drosi would always feel embarrassed for freeloading and apologize to Seth whenever the topic came up.

"Stop apologizing already, Drosi. There is no need to hurry. Take all the time you need." he kept reassuring the old cat. He shared his ideas for the future with Drosi and told him that it would take a while to get to that point, anyway.

Somehow, knowing there was a lot of work waiting in the future, helped calm the old cat's conscience

It was different for Seth, who felt slightly overwhelmed when he thought of all the things that waited in the future. He looked forward to it, but it also felt tiresome.