Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth almost choked at the number of additional skills, he needed a moment to grasp that there were seven additional skills that came with the pauldrons.

The moment Hoen and Wedan got a glimpse at the pauldron, they started worshipping him and wouldn't stop. It just made it harder to concentrate on the items.

Most were self-explanatory. Leraje's Archery gave a basic improvement of everything archery related, similar to the passive bonus a common or uncommon archer class would get.

The skill that was developed by Apollo's divine power as a counterweight was Apollo's Light Arrow.

<Active Skill: Apollo's Light Arrow, 50 mana, No Cool Down.

Use mana to generate and fire a high-speed arrow made of pure sunlight. The projectile will deal 200% of your basic magic damage in light-attributed damage.>

Seeing this skill, Seth could already guess one of the bigger synergies down the line... Apollo's rain of Light. It was a synergy of Volley of 300 and Apollo's Light Arrow.

<Active Skill: Apollo's Rain of Light, Cost: 5000 mana, No Cooldown.

Generate 300 Light arrows at once and shoot them at the target area. Projectiles will deal 150% of your basic magic damage in light attributed damage and have a 5% to cause Slow and Burn>

Now 300 didn't sound like a lot, but the skill was a bargain, even with the lowered damage, as each arrow only cost roughly 17 mana compared to the 50 if he generated them one by one.

Seth's current base mana only counting his attributes and soul armaments had reached 13000, which was barely comparable to a dedicated mage. However, if he generated the light arrows individually he would only be able to make 250. This way he could use this skill twice and shoot 600.

If he was faced with bigger numbers of enemies, this was a viable option, if he didn't want to reveal any of his other trump cards.

The dwarfs almost got a heart attack when Seth suddenly drew his bow to check the handling of the skill. The bard quickly understood how the skill worked. Similar to MMOs, he would see a circle for the target area, however, he could manipulate this shape before activating the skill.

They were only very basic changes such as increasing or shrinking the area or elongating it in a direction. Size would also impact the accuracy of the attack. However, the blacksmith didn't worry about the accuracy.

Not only that he now had skills like Leraje's Archery that improved accuracy, but he had his Mind reaper bow. The very first effect of the bow was "Arrows shot with this bow show great malice and will aim to hit vital points."

Seth would have to test it, but he was sure the effect would also count for the arrows of light, meaning he could shoot 300 aimed missiles at a crowd. Even when it was no 100% guarantee, Seth could also somewhat rely on his relatively high Luck attribute to do the rest.

The skill alone was powerful but had its drawbacks. But the combination of Seth's items and skills more than made up for them, making the skill an almost unfair bargain against big numbers of enemies.

The only skill that had little to do with archery on the pauldrons was the Power of Menoetius.

<Active Skill: Power of Menoetius, No Cost, Cool Down: 15 min, Duration: 5 min

For 5 minutes you gain a fraction of the Power of Menoetius, increasing your physical damage by 5 times. Afterward, you will enter a state of weakening for 10 minutes. In the weakened state, your Melee Damage and Movement Speed will be reduced to 1/5. >

Skills like this existed in almost every media and game, so Seth was not really surprised about it. They offered a huge improvement of strength at the cost of being weakened afterward. In theory, these kinds of skills were rather balanced.

That was if one wasn't overgeared like Seth. With the kind of defense the armor offered and his other abilities, the blacksmith did not have to rely on melee damage and speed. Seth doubted there were many things in this world that could kill him, even if he just stood there. Of course, that was once he finished the armor.

If he had to critique something, then it was the stinginess of the system. He had obviously made two pauldrons! But for some bullcrap reason, he only got credited for creating one legendary item. This was one point in Personality and Luck lost. Well, one point lost in all attributes, but these two hurt the most.

Of course, he would still manage to raise his Luck to one hundred with the point gained from the attribute titles, but still-! He felt slightly robbed. It was only a minor thought. He was a magnanimous person and would not hold it against the system.

The blacksmith rolled his shoulders and bend back and forth to test the interaction of the finished armor parts. After finding no major flaws, he finally turned to the two dwarfs.

"I'm finished for today. Are you guys satisfied watching me work?"

He couldn't help but grin at their awkward expressions. They couldn't see souls, so there wasn't a whole lot to see for them after he was done with the etchings. However, the dwarfs didn't know what to answer. On one hand, it was them who had insisted on watching, on the other, they really had not gained a lot... but they couldn't tell their Tower Master that they were bored, right?

"It's okay, let's leave."

It was already too late to start anything else, so he decided to end it for the day. The three left the workshop to go visit the canteen and grab something to eat when someone approached them

"Seth, do you have a moment?" Karina, the dryad, suddenly approached them on the hallway.

"Erm, sure. Excuse me, Hoen, Wedan."

He gave the dwarfs an apologetic look and followed Karina. Although he wanted to eat, it wasn't often the dryad approached him, so it was probably something important.

"How can I help you, Karina?" he asked once they sat back down in the workshop.

"Mary told me about your plans for the trade route," she started off.

Apparently, Mary had made a deal with the Adventurer Guild. Seth had a vague recollection of talking about this during the banquet. But the evening was long and they said a lot. It was a plan for the expansion of the Trade Route further towards the direction of Beta. She didn't know the details, but this was how Karina had found out more details about the changed plans for the trade route.

"I had an idea that could help, further than just giving protection under the crown of the tree. I believe I could help build the accommodations."

At first, he thought she meant help with building materials, but the dryad continued to explain.

"Did you ever read of elves? The children kept talking about a race living in harmony with nature, that managed to build their houses in trees, without killing them."

"Yes?" he asked slowly.

"Errm, well, I wanted to try something like that myself and after hearing about the plans I have been experimenting a little. I want to try doing it on a bigger scale to show you.." "A bigger scale?"

He was slowly getting the scope of what the tree lady was talking about and the implications.

"Yes! I couldn't do it here, but I want to try it at one of the trees on the route from here. With your permission, I will go and start right away. I'm sure it won't take long if you want to take a look," she said excitedly when she saw that Seth was not opposed to her idea.

The blacksmith didn't expect her to be so motivated in involving herself. She had already helped so much with raising the trees along the path, now she wanted to help build accommodations? A bigger man might have thought of her own good and asked her to take a step back and care for her health. Say something like "You already did enough.". Maybe offer her to concentrate on her time with the children.

Seth was not like that. He wasn't going to stop her. She seemed very willing to help and Seth was always glad to have help. The bard was the last person to snub somebody that wanted to help him. He was also the last person to force someone to help him

"Okay, you have my permission. I give my speech next week Friday, you have time until then to show me what you can do." he was very interested in what the dryad would be able to accomplish in the roughly 10 days before the press conference. If it was viable, he wouldn't say no.