Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth and Mina kept enjoying the day together and returned to Minas Mar in the evening. Both had to endure Mary's scolding about just running off.

"Here, this letter came from Ora."

Seth took it excitedly. It was from Nädel. Seth had sent the craftsman tailor a sample of Puffles' <Sky Silk>. He had hoped for the tailor to make him a new set of shirt and pants he could wear under the <Golden Fleece>.

Unfortunately, it was no good news. To sum it up, Nädel apologized. The <Sky Silk> was a unique material he could not process with his skills. It needed precise requirements.

~ The great me could have told you that, too! ~

~What do you mean? ~ Seth answered with telepathy.

~ A tailor needs the blessing of our god to works with the <Sky Silk>~

~ Why didn't you tell me sooner!? ~ Had he known, he would not have bothered Nädel in the first place.

~ You didn't ask. ~

~So, the Sky Silk is useless? ~

~ What are you saying! Don't belittle our ultimate thread! You just need a Tailor that can receive the blessing. ~

~ Wait, are you saying, you can give out your god's divine blessing? ~

~ Do you finally recognize my greatness? ~

~ Yeah, yeah, Puffles, the Great. Greatest of them all. ~ he placated the nightmare centipede.

~ What do you need to bless someone? ~

~ Just the tailor is enough. After the blessing, he will be able to take on the class to work with <Sky Silk>. ~

~ Where am I supposed to get a tailor from. ~ Seth grumbled.

They could not go to Ora because of the system god's shenanigans. Asking Nädel to come here was already a lot, but to change his class, just because Seth wanted a better pair of pants?

~Don't we have that Booze-Guy? Didn't you throw <Ancient Bronze> and <Celestial Bronze> at him to make stuff for the others? ~

~You mean Neeco boos?~

It was true. Seth had given him materials to make some stuff and level his still. The tailor was in the early stage of the craftsman tier and barely able to work with celestial bronze.

As far as Seth knew, Boos did not have a second class yet. If they pulled him to level 50, he would be able to take on Puffles' class as a secondary one. As long as he agreed, and they worked fast, maybe he could finish the things until Seth had to leave.

Having the tailor in-house gave Seth another idea, for what he wanted to be made from <Sky Silk>.

~Good we will do that. ~

The blacksmith immediately gave boos a visit and showed him the new thread. Although they did not share tastes, the tailor was even crazier for new materials than Seth. He respected that.

When Boos heard the conditions to work with the <Sky Silk> he immediately agreed. It was like he had entered heaven. He could not only work with epic materials but he was even offered the chance to gain an ancient tailor class.

He would have to be stupid to say no. And so started his suffering, as parties of the Oathguard kept pulling him through dungeons, to get him to lv.50 as fast as possible.

In the meantime, Seth returned to his workshop and split his time there between working on the golems and helping Cerberus to stockpile merchandise.

However, the first thing he did was take care of his new lyre, so he could start practicing as soon as possible.

When he first saw it, he had almost thought that he had found an item of his predecessor. Upon closer inspection, it was not like that.

Yes, someone had caught the soul of a dead person and sealed it in the person's skull, but because it lacked the techniques of Seth's class, the soul deteriorated with time.

It was like making pottery. If the bowl was not correctly burned and sealed, it would leak water. Without the treatment of the waters of Styx, the soul inside was just bound by chains and corroded by time, instead of living in the item as if it is its body.

Seth extracted the damaged soul from the lyre.

<Soul of Oz (Medium, Epic, Ego, Damaged), Crafting material

The ancient soul of a great bard. Corroded by time. >

With the soul extracted, Seth first started working on the lyre's body. The skull had many cracks from age, which he was able to repair with <Instrument Maker> and <Energy Circulation (2)>.

He also exchanged the crossbar, string, and turning bulges for better ones he had bought at the market.

Then he turned to the soul. To repair the damage done by time, he infused several small souls and started to refine the soul. It was the perk unlocked thanks to <Soul Forging lv.7>.

Refining the Soul was similar to the way blacksmiths can homogenize and get rid of impurities in iron or steel by continuously forging and folding the material.

In Seth's case, this meant memories. Souls were bundles of energy and memory fragments. Common souls had very few native memories, which made them useless to gain special effects on an item but great for fixing other souls.

By refining the soul of Oz, he was able to get rid of the useless memories he had introduced to it, but he was also able to organize the present memories. This way he was able to repair the damaged soul to a certain extent and hopefully restore the ego to a state he was able to communicate with.

This was also a good practice. Oz still had his personality, just that it was diffused over time. Seth expected that with more experience he would be able to restore Egos to his higher quality souls.

He had two goals he definitely wanted to achieve before he had to leave. One of them had to do with refining souls.

Watching the damaged memory fragments burn away as floating embers after they were forged out of the soul, Seth could see the soul turn visibly more sublime. He had succeeded in refining the soul and restoring the ego.

~ Who are you? ~ Seth got an answer when he tried to communicate with telepathy.

The voice was rough and slightly confused like someone who just woke up from a long dream.

~ My name is Seth. I repaired your soul. ~

~You did what? My soul? Wait... am I dead?! ~

Dafuq? How did a soul not realize I was dead? Could it be he forgot-?

~ I'm just joking! Look at your face. So, you have a similar skill and repaired my soul? Thanks! ~

~Well, I had my reasons. ~

~ You want my help to become a great musician? ~

~Duh. ~

~ okay, okay. Put me back in the lyre and we can do that. ~

Seth shoved Oz back into the instrument and dunked it into the waters of Styx.

~Hey, Woah. What is this? It feels good... I could get used to- hey! Hey! Don't just take me out it was just getting good. ~

~ Now, your soul shouldn't deteriorate over time. ~

Seth mentioned and checked the lyre again.

<Lyre of Oz

Unique-Ego

Durability: 666

1. Self-tuning

2. Self-repairing

3. Self-playing

4. +75% Proficiency gain in Instrument Mastery

5. +100% effect of music skills

6. Ballads of Oz

7. Hordes of Oz

Made from the skull of Oz, a well-known demon musician of his time. Often polarizing because of his hard take on music. Through mystical means, his soul was sealed in a lyre made of his own skull. Refurbished by the hands of Craftsman Smith.

Requirements: Gain the recognition of Oz >

After repairing the souls, some of the options had improved quite a lot.

~ And? What's your deal? Wanna be a great musician? A superstar? An artistic legend? ~

~ I chose the class to complement my Blacksmith class. ~

~ ... That's unique! That's metal! I like it. I will help. ~

And like that, Seth got the help of a very talkative ego-lyre. He didn't know whether this was a positive development.