Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth looked at the goat for a while. It was clear that the goat had no intention to give him these lost souls for something like equipment crafting. He finally nodded. They returned to the first floor where Seth started to explain what other souls he needed.

One was the soul he needed for the Gloves of the Firespirit. The blacksmith wanted a high-rated soul with a fire attribute that would honor the work of his master Tored and his friend Nädel.

The second soul was for Forgeright, the pendant he made for Wraithguard. Since the Blessing of Hephaestus was already instilled to the physical gauntlet, he wanted a fitting soul. The soul of a talented blacksmith was preferable and he thought of etching it with a demonic poem.

Of course, he didn't tell all of this to Tano'Mol in detail. The bad only gave a rough description of his needs.

"If you are looking for the real high-end products I will have to ask you to follow me to the third floor."

The upright walking goat came out from behind the counter and beckoned him to follow it up the stairs again. They passed the second floor. At the threshold before the third floor, where the stairs ended, he waved his hoof as if unlocking something.

"Come in, Come in," he beckoned again and lead Seth into a small room.

Unlike the first two floors, this room was dark and the only light illuminated a desk and the various containers spread around the room. The atmosphere was very different as these containers were stored in a special way and each was unique in its own right.

All souls here were of various sizes, many massive, and their rating was either unique or epic. Some even had an ego. Seth couldn't help but wonder as he saw all the different fabulous souls. They all tickled his fancy and he probably could have made a relic-rated item with any of them.

"These are the best merchandise I can offer you for now."

The goat walked over to a container that was held in a fixture that looked like black solidified lava and obsidian.

"You asked for a soul closely related to fire. This would be the best I can offer you, the soul of a lesser fire titan. There are only a few souls of greater affinity to fire such as that of a phoenix or a greater fire elemental, but those would already be legendary," the goat explained but Seth didn't listen.

He already checked it with his own skills

<Soul of a Fire Titan (Massive, Epic, Damaged)

The soul of a fire kin comparable to an elemental. Unknown magic has damaged the soul before its death.>

Even damaged, the soul was tremendous. Maybe he could fix it? If he infused some more souls and refined it with <Soul Forging>, it might definitely be able to develop an ego in the future.

Although he suspected that it wouldn't matter in the end since he was going to use an Olympian Enchantment on it, Seth clung to the small hope that he could get a synergy if he used a fitting soul. After all, he didn't yet have a lot of experience with the interaction between a soul's nature and the divine enchantments.

Maybe, if this worked, he could get a soul that fit the enchantments better and reforge his soul armament set up. Or maybe it was enough if he infused fitting souls into the armaments? Before he thought about this any further he wanted to finish his physical load-out.

In that regard, the Gloves could also be seen as a test. If it seemed like the nature of the soul had a good effect, he would think about getting souls fitting the enchantments he planned for the scorpion armor.

These thoughts shot through his head, as he stared at the soul container Tano'Mol had brought to the table.

"This should be sufficient. What would be the condition for the trade?"

Seth had not forgotten what the goat had said earlier. The things above the second floor could not be bought with money alone. He guessed that he would either have to barter or fulfill specific conditions to purchase them.

"How about we talk about those after I showed you the second soul?" the goat said craftily and walked to a pedestal.

The crystal contained had the shape of a glass tear and was held in a crudely forged rhomboid caged made of iron. Tano'Mol lifted the upper pyramid that made up half of the cage and put the tear-shaped container on the desk.

<Soul of the Obsessive Forger (Epic, Big, Ego)

Even when his muscles rotted and his forge turned cold, his hammer never stopped. The soul of a blacksmith who refused death and kept forging without ever finishing his last work. Holds a fervent desire to create and retain all of his crafting knowledge at the cost of his personal memory.>

"My god, you are truly an expert. Where did you get such a soul? Seth exclaimed awed.

"It's not a big secret. Like the souls you saw on the second floor, this is the soul of an undead blacksmith. This non-seller- cough This premium good is a hard-to-come-by commodity. You are fortunate that nobody else has snatched it, yet," the soul trader pitched it.

Seth didn't care whether it was a non-seller or a premium good. He wanted this soul. Forget the gloves, maybe he could make a second Cerberus.

"Save the sales talk, tell me the price."

"As I mentioned, anything above the second floor can't be bought with just money. Some souls can only be exchanged for specific materials and others ask for special conditions. For these souls harvested from the undead, it's that you have to convince the ego or swear that you won't mistreat them.

A person has to suffer a lot during their lifetime to turn into an undead and even retain their ego. I can't let them suffer even more after their death," the goat said surprisingly genuine.

"This means, the first condition will be that this Soul has to accept you. As for the second condition.." the goat seemed slightly insecure for a moment before it continued talking about the price.

"I need your help with something." finally came out with it.

"Pray tell."

"I have seen the reaction of the souls to your presence, despite the containers. As someone with unfathomable skills to craft souls into armor, you must also have a powerful skill to deal with souls, correct?"

Seth only nodded and prompted him to continue.

"It's like this. Some of my employees ran into trouble inside a ruin here on Urth. They are still new to the job and may have bitten off more than they can chew. As long as you can help them, and this soul accepts you, I will give them to you for free."

Seth cocked his head. He would get the two souls for a favor?

"What about the discount on my previous purchase?"

For a moment Tano'Mol seemed to struggle as if there was something stuck in his throat.

"F- 50% discount. I will give them to you for 7Gold and 50 Silver."

"hmm, tell me first what exactly happened. Then I will decide."

Seth didn't mind doing the goat a favor if it wasn't too big of a deal. If he could have a good relationship with the goat for some labor, there was nothing wrong with it.

"Of course, I just hope you could keep it a secret, as it is a little embarrassing..."

The trader explained that these employees were actually young locals. In every new world, he would pick up a few locals and teach them his skills and practices. This way he had built up a huge net of contacts over the past centuries.

"Humans are the hardest to deal with, " he sighed.

Apparently, the group he picked up was still quite young and inexperienced. For a reason, the demon couldn't understand they were stubbornly trying to prove themselves, even though they had learned for barely a year.

The group of four had taken one of his cars and ran off after a routine job. They had heard about a town not far from Delta, where some especially strong undead could be found, and went there to show him their skills.

They had entered an ancient manor. The only reason the goat knew about this, was that one managed to get out of the structure, however, the other three were still inside. It had been several days, but the people he sent had not balled him back.

When Mol saw Seth enter and the kind of influence he had on the souls in the shop, he finally held some hope to find out what happened. He wasn't sure whether any of his people were still alive, but he didn't have anyone to send left.

Seth was his only chance.