Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

In the following weeks, the news of Beta became public within Delta and Ypsilon with the flow of refugees from the district growing. The atmosphere of Delta became heavy in this time and a few guilds followed Minas Mar's example to help in the evacuation.

Voices that demanded for the districts to step in to do more than just war relief became loud. There were many reasons, disclosed or undisclosed, why the leaderships did not move in this direction.

The society that had just started to recover, thinking that there might be a chance to return to a peaceful time at least similar to the past. It hit Delta especially hard. Now, the new nature of their world, which had been kept at the borders of their District for the most part, had moved back into the consciousness of the people.

What if someday there would open a portal beside Delta and they would be invaded? The Empire had been there to deal with the Demons, but what about next time? The public that had pushed these changes to the back of their minds and overlooked them for their own convenience became aware of the perpetual danger of the world around them.

In the meantime, Seth tried to strike a good work-life balance.

With more people trying to gain strength in fear of the future, the blacksmith's business was booming. Seth left most of the production for the shop to Cerberus and the dwarves, while he worked on his own experiments and equipment for himself and the members.

However, at this time, Seth made sure, to not hole up in the workshop for too long at a time and enjoy the company of Mina and his friends. He even started visiting the bard's college again, to learn different instruments and find what fits him best.

The music teacher was also a great help in improving his singing skill. The only thing he neglected at this time, was his level. He did not visit any dungeons for the time being.

The first thing he did was to update his own equipment. The materials of Chrysopras, the Stone Giant had given him new options, compared to before. Originally, he planned to use <Fey Steel> for his new jewelry. But after mining the giant and gaining <Wugrum>, he found it the vastly superior material for his needs.

Following its high affinity with the earth element, <Wugrum> had a high acceptance for other metals. This meant that <Wugrum> was one of the few magic metals that allowed for the formation of alloys or pattern layering.

Thanks to this, Seth was able to create an alloy using <Celestial Bronze> and <Wugrum>, that would strengthen both elements and keep the immunity to fire damage. Otherwise, there would have been a possibility to damage his own items, if he went overboard with fire.

Seth had gotten three gems called <Deep Topaz> from the auction house. They had a great earth affinity and were perfect for accessories.

He decided to only use one of the topazes on a ring and use the other 2 gems for the pair of earrings. The reason for this change was what he had looted from the giant's chest. Its energy core, The Core of Chrysopras was the perfect nucleus for a magician's staff, improving the power of the earth element greatly.

He started with the ring since he had the most experience with rings and pendants. He kept the simple style with the embedded stone.

This time, Seth did not use some ballad he had learned at the college. The elements of the ring reminded him of his "Song of Fire and Earth". Using <Song Writing> he perfected the song with a rare rating.

He did not call upon a specific demon and had no one specific in mind. Using <Orpheus Voice> and <Voice of Seth> the song was transmitted into the aether through channeling. Whatever demon took a liking to it, could grant its power.

A demon called Talamtine answered the song and granted its power to the ring.

For the enchantment, Seth chose something he could finally use after becoming a craftsman. Breath was a high-level enchantment that could allow one to breathe despite the lack of oxygen. It was a good enchantment for mining or underwater levels.

Seth had used all his uncommon big souls from the glow people he had left on the equipment for his companions, this was why he extracted the soul from the old ring. After repairing it, he engraved it with the divine enchantment "Blessing of Mnemosyne".

He had not slacked and polished his knowledge. Mnemosyne was the goddess of memory and one of the rivers of the underworld. Her's was one of the enchantments that were unlocked with <Enchantment (Craftsman) lv.3>.

Since he would need to learn spells from now on, he thought it was a good idea to get a buff for his memory. Once again, he could feel the presence of someone watching him as he engraved the abstract sigil.

As the daughter of Gaia, the land herself, the presence seemed pleased with the ring, fully geared for the earth attribute. Soon he finished the engraving and a fine net of vines spread out to cover the soul ring.

All that was left, was infusing it into the ring, and it was finished

<Earth's Memory

Unique

Durability: 1200

1. Item is immune to Fire Damage

2. +30% Earth Affinity

3.+35% to the effect of all Earth-Attribute Magic

4.+10% to the effect of all Fire-Attribute Magic

5.+20% additional Curse Damage to Fire- and Earth-Attribute Skills

6. Casting Time is Reduced by 25%

7. +30% Mana regeneration

8. Passive Skill: Memorize

9. Active Skill: The Land remembers

10. Active Skill: Telepathy

11. Passive Skill: Breath A simple-looking ring hiding a huge secret made by Craftsman Smith in his endeavor to remember the world. A divine existence has lent a hand in the creation of this item.

Once rumors of the ring's power spread or it plays a role in the users ascend to a legend, the item might become legendary.>

The ring brought him to 10% proficiency of lv.1 in <Goldsmith (Craftsman)>. The skills that came with the blessing were more special than Seth had expected.

Memorize gave him the ability of a selective, perfect memory. He had used almost twenty medium-sized souls to improve the power of this passive skill. It allowed him to perfectly remember up to 300 memories. Whereby memories were not exactly defined. But Seth decided the more the better.

<The Land Remembers> allowed him to see what happened in a place in the past. With the powerup, he could look up to 3 hours into the recent past.

What surprised him was that <Telepathy> was added as a third option. This saved him a lot of headaches since Telepathy was a very complex enchantment and was easy to fail. He had wanted this skill for some time now. But at over 300 Gold, it was too expensive to buy at the auction house.

Seth was very satisfied with this ring. However, this was not the last ring he made for himself.

The second ring Seth made had nothing to do with combat. For this ring, he brought out one of a few brass ingots he had stored away a long time ago. It was one of the ingots he judged successful after his experiments with volatile zinc.

<Lucky Brass- Unique

Be Favored by Fortune>

Was all the description said, but it was more than enough.

What exactly did the luck stat mean in the context of the system? Seth still was not too sure about all implications, but he knew one thing.

After he had made this brass ingot back then, the later brass ingots and even the rings from <Bones of Seth> Cerberus had been making in the background, tended to have better options. If his luck affected the options of <Bones of Seth> then it was worth having a ring, dedicating for just this attribute.

He used the <Lucky Brass> and the <Fortune Glass>, he had bought from Drosi all that time ago, to make a ring. He further strengthened the ring with a ballad praising Asmodeus, the Demon of Gambling.

Interestingly enough, the price one had to pay for Asmodeus's blessing, was money or precious things. Seth liked this ballad because it had mentioned in the description, that items could be used for the exchange. Seth paid the demon with 10 epic rings to gain a strong effect.

There were no enchantments that could improve chance, so Seth engraved it with <Feather Fall>, so he would not need to fear death from falling in the future.

<Lucky Trinket

Unique

1.+50 Luck

2. Wearer is slightly favored by fortune

3. Feather Fall (50mana per Minute)

A simple looking ring with a very rare effect made by the hands of Craftsman Smith, who attempts to improve his chances>

Seth had not added a soul to the ring, because he was unconvinced with his current options. His gut told him, that it was better to wait than to hastily finish the ring. Although there was no visible change to an item that had its soul extracted, Seth could not ignore the feeling that it did matter.

Aside from his two new rings, Seth made a new pair of earrings using the two Deep topaz gems left. These earrings were a lot more covert than his dragon glass earrings from before. They were also a lot more powerful.

He used the soul he extracted from his previous set and his second Dragon Glass ring for the earrings, which made them a pair, but not a set item. Like with the rings, he added some of the useful enchantments he had unlocked with the craftsman tier.

He enchanted the left earring with the advanced enchantment of <Life Detection>. As for the right, he inscribed a poem on the soul before he infused it.

<Terra Topaz Earring(R)

Relic

Durability: 1200

1. Item is immune to Fire Damage

2. +30% Earth Affinity

3.+35% to the effect of all Earth-Attribute Magic

4.+10% to the effect of all Fire-Attribute Magic

5.+20% additional Curse Damage to Fire- and Earth-Attribute Skills

6. Casting Time is Reduced by 25%

7. +30% Mana regeneration

8. Passive Skill: Perfect Pitch

9. +50 Willpower

10. +50 Intelligence

A simple-looking earring made by Craftsman Smith in his endeavor to get closer with nature.>

<Perfect Pitch< was a passive skill that improved his hearing, especially for singing and playing music. <Life Detection>, on the other hand, could help him see enemies in a radius of 20m, even through walls.

Now, he would just need to make sure, not to cover himself in flames while wearing his Lucky Trinket, because it was not immune to fire.