Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The bard described his idea to them. Mary still looked concerned but she finally gave in to their plan.

"That sounds crazy, but it might work." Evee supported Seth's idea

"Let's talk about the details at a later point," she said with a sigh.

"You said there was more?"

Seth shared their idea of the token coin with them. Alison and Evee also listened this time, as this could be applied to all high-grade items. As the two people in charge of the most potent potions, this also affected them.

Keeping a register of the coins seemed like a good idea and Mary easily agreed to take on this side of the organization. They would then have to organize everything with Jane, who was in charge of the Turquoise Anvil.

The talk of the token coin naturally transitioned to Alison's great breakthrough. This was again a more complicated matter. As one would expect, the ingredients for these potions were not cheap themselves and she had blown their whole research budget on her experiments.

"You blew our whole budget?!" Evee exclaimed shocked.

"I had the chance to buy all the ingredients in bulk! I had to take this opportunity." Alison defended her action.

"No wonder you managed to make a leap and finish the recipe," Evee said grumpily.

"We will talk about the finances later. Since the Tower Master is already here, we should talk about what to do with this potion in the future." Mary stopped the two.

"I think we should provide them to the lords and the field teams. We could use the potion as an incentive for the Oathguard, too."

The bard's first notion was, of course, to strengthen his own people with it and hog it for themselves.

"We could also sell them in a very limited quantity at the shop. There are no shops that sell a comparable item in Delta or Y-City as far as I know. It would be a good advertisement to get our name even further out there." Evee suggested.

"We should only sell in on a first come first serve basis and not take any order for it either," Mary added thriftily.

Their explanation made sense for Seth. If it was a rare resource and hard to come by, the rumors would travel even further. The more people had to struggle to get it, the better it would be.

They talked about it a little longer, but Seth slowly fazed out of the conversation. He was sure this business was in good hands, so he took Karina and left with her after a quick farewell. After bringing her to her tree, he also returned to his quarters.

He found that the day had gotten longer than he expected once he returned to his quarters. Mina was on a dungeon run today, so he enjoyed the whole bed for himself alone. Having a quiet night for once was quite relaxing.

The next day, after a good night's sleep, Seth felt very satisfied. He had more or less dealt with anything urgent and shoved the rest of the work onto other people. He was free to do what he wanted.

Which was actually not to work on his skills to fight Scorpio, or find the way to Hyperboreas. No, he just wanted to relax and make weapons for the shop. He was confident to leave the coin production to Hoen, who was occupied with adjusting the minting press.

He wanted to convert the inspiration he gained from his talk with Kothar and put effort into a truly polished product. The blacksmith wanted to challenge his technical skills while he still remembered his conversation.

At this point, Seth had also attained vast storage of various materials. This was a prerequisite of the dwarven way. To not cut corners, to not compromise with a roundabout way of doing things, but to use the right materials regardless of their price.

In order to do that, he did not immediately start forging. The blacksmith sat down and used <Blueprint> in tandem with his material catalog to thoroughly plan the weapons he wanted to make and save them as new blueprints.

His intent was not to make some overpowered, unique weapon, like the Giant's Rod, but an assortment of weapons that could become the poster child of their shop. His goal was to make the best possible weapons, similar to the Superior Sword he had made when he just started off forging.

With his current skill level, he would need to forge hundreds or thousands of epic items to become a master. Relics were better, but he often needed to layer several enchantments and his <Soul Infusion> to create a relic-rated item.

What Seth wanted was to improve his practical skill and the balance of materials to the point that the items alone could reach relic rating with the minimum of enchantments. This way he could create relics without wasting souls.

For the blueprints, Seth used the epic <Olympian Silver> as the base for the weapons. He did this because it was essentially a higher grade of <Mithril>, which meant it had a great conductivity to mana and affinity with any type of magic and material.

Based on the same reason he used the rare wood <Thaumatic Oak>. As for leathers he chose the leather of a Minotaur. He had found a few sheets of this in the storeroom by chance. Somehow he hoped it would have a synergy with the <Olympian Silver>.

But even if it didn't, he chose it because the leather had a relatively neutral effect with respect to magic or skills the user would use with the weapon. The leather was described as lending some of the strength of the Minotaur to the user.

By focusing on the weapon's magic affinity without any special effects, they became blank slates. They would have a high tolerance for whatever enchantments would be put on. There was even a possibility for an enchanter personalizing it for the buyer, depending on the magic Seth put into it.

After finishing the blueprints, Seth got to work and he put special attention to taking his time. With the level-up of the <Spirit Smithy> the production speed of his crafting stations had doubled, however, he even denied this assist for now.

The blacksmith immersed himself as deeply as possible in forging the blade and this state transferred over to every step of the production. Filing the handle wood, forging the crossguard and pommel, everything was dignified without any great decorations.

Function over Form was another dwarven principle he had learned from Tored. Decorations were nothing bad, but they should never get in the way of function. In this regard, Seth's style was almost plain.

But he also did not disregard the aesthetics, going for a clean and stylish look.

The ballad and enchantment he chose were ones he had not used for some time, the Blooddrinker combination. Seth had grown a lot, especially when it came to ballads. Besides not getting in the way of most of the common weapon enchantments, it could enable even the high-leveled Oathguard members to gain additional strength in the dungeons, using these weapons.

Unfortunately, there was no resonance between the leather, the silver, and his trait as he had hoped. The leather of a random Minotaur from the dungeons was obviously not enough.

< Sanguine Silver Sword

Relic

Damage:2200

Durability: 6000

1. Will absorb blood to repair itself

2. Will absorb part of the target's blood to heal and strengthen the user

3. Active Skill: Lacerate

4. Passive Skill: Strength of the Minotaur

5.+50% Skill Damage

6.+50% Magic Damage

7. +20% increased Damage in Dark Places.

An exceedingly excellent sword created by Craftsman Smith with minute attention to detail and a clear function in mind. The superior craftsmanship improved its performance to its physical limits, while the enchantments lend an opportunity for growth.

Once this sword plays a role in the user's ascent to a legend, the item has a small chance to become legendary. >

He had succeeded! He had created a relic-rated item without using <Soul Infusion> or a crazy amount of enchantments and special materials.

Although the effects were as expected and rather moderate, the performance of the sword itself was overwhelming. Dealing a huge amount of base damage and improving the power of magic and skill damage.

The strength of a Minotaur improved the strength and endurance of the wielder by 25 when holding the sword at the cost of 20 Mana per minute. It was not a lot compared to the enchantments Seth could have done, but in exchange, it kept the option to have an enchanter further enchant it.

An unprecedented bonus was the additional damage in dark places imbued by the function of Charon's Obol.

Seth noticed a small change in the description of the possibility for it to become legendary. Most of his previous relics had the phrase "if rumors of the item become widely known", however, this was missing here.

Also, the chance of it becoming legendary even if it helps in someone's ascension was still small. Was this the judgment of the system, that the sword would be unable to become legendary on its own and only had the possibility to piggyback someone else's achievements?

This beckoned the question, of whether this would change if he had someone, for example, Al'Zalsar, enchant the sword with a strong property. This was something he could test later.

What was important was, that he had succeeded. He had gained a visible sliver of proficiency bringing his <Blacksmith (Craftsman) lv.5> to roughly 40%. If this was the same for the other weapons, he "only" needed another 20 for the next level up...

That was if he managed to succeed in all of them. After all, he was most proficient in making swords.

He pursed his lips, loosened his shoulders, and started on his next blueprint. There was no reason to stop here. Next, he started working on a mace.