Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

594. Piprima

There were just two more armor pieces left and he had finished the blueprints for the next iteration of the Faer. Today, while he and the dwarfs were working on refining the last of the materials, the Golem Forge was working furiously.

It wasn't the only thing running in the background. Besides Cerberus who was tirelessly working on weapons, they could also hear construction work from a new door they had not seen before.

After they refined the last bits of Dragon Scales into the composite material, the three sat together with their water bottles.

"What a truly amazing machine."

Hoen kept gushing over the golem forge that was skill speedily working to the side, looking like a highly complex assembly robot.

"I find it a little creepy, to be honest."

Wedan couldn't help looking at the crafting station with suspicion. This was a good example of the cultural difference between dwarfs of different worlds. Hoen grew up with foundries and arcane casting technologies. He appreciated the technological development the golem forge represented.

The younger dwarf, on the other hand, came from a more traditional world where the work of a true craftsman was more glorified to the point that this kind of technology was shunned and had a hard time developing.

However, Seth had to agree with Wedan. With the quick movements of dozens of mechanical arms, that glinted with an eerie silver sheen in the greenish-blue hue that emitted from the depths of the machine, the apparatus looked like the creation of a mad scientist from a horror movie.

They talked for a while longer but neither asked what Seth was building again. Soon the dwarfs went back to their quarters and left Seth to his own devices. He could start on the boots. This time he was cheating a little on the boots, as he had left making a fine pair of knee-high epic leather boots to Neeco Boos.

The leather used for the boots was that of a white bull, this time one that was not cursed. The materials had easily cost 50 gold. He was aiming for Apollo's aspect of purity, but this was a hard one since purity was not really a thing for most demons.

This was why Seth tried to trigger it with the material used. The Boots of the White Bull came with the passive option to purify curses over time. In addition, there was Earth Affinity that fit well with the scorpion material and the Blessing of the Land, which would lower his stamina consumption and health regeneration when standing with both feet on earth.

Using the boots as a base, he attached the armor plates to the high boots, in a way that fit with the knee joints of the cuisses, making greaves unnecessary. After attacking them, he added the enchantments he had planned to the armor plates.

Since he couldn't find a fitting etching, Seth did not even try to keep the aspect of Apollo in mind when it came to the enchantment. The poem he had found praised the demon Seir, known for his quick travel power and benign nature.

Seir's Travel was a movement skill similar to a charge, that came close to blink or short-range teleportation, according to its description.

Aside from the demonic enchantment, he also chose the Shattering stomp. This enchantment was similar to the skill of his Disruptive boots, which could send out a damaging shockwave. Either as an attack or as a makeshift charge.

The theme was quite obvious, since all armor pieces gave him boosts to speed, Seth dumped all kinds of charge skills onto the boots. Among others, he prepared the Olympian enchantment Alecto's Rush for the soul enchantment.

This would give him a wealth of options to truly make use of the increased speed in battles. Although he would need the training to use them in tandem with Lame One's Walk. Even if he didn't train them for battle, they would be great for running away or getting distance.

It didn't take long to finish the demonic etching. Seir was a very benign demon and his blessing came with no strings attached, except the souls Seth paid. The inlays of Shattering Stomp he added to the armor plate at the heel took a little longer because of the steps involved.

After finishing the item he took a short break, ate something, and checked on the golem forge. It was currently busy building frames according to the blueprints he had finished yesterday.

For the first test, there were only ten for now. 5 of them used <Olympian Silver>, and the other five used <Ithildin> as the base component.

The other day Seth had bought out almost 300 souls from Tano'Mol. All of them had an ego and agreed to follow Minas Mar and Seth based on individual terms fixed in soul contracts, which would secure their loyalty.

Now, all of these souls were quite different. Some were former knights or soldiers. Others were mages, witches, or other professions that had little to do with the battlefield. To accommodate most of them, Seth had to make adjustments.

In the case of material, he use <Ithildin> for the bodies of classes specialized in magic and <Olympian Silver > for the more physical professions. The reason was obvious. The former had a better magic conductivity, while the letter had a greater balance and offered a higher durability.

The differences did not end with their classes but also depended on their size. The blacksmith knew that depending on their power massive and above souls had a chance to manifest a true body for short times even if he did not help in the creation of that option.

Examples were Al'Zalsar, Ceres, or the Fire Titan of the Trignis Gloves.

However, smaller souls lacked this power. Now he had two options. In the case of the Faer, he had used external power sources to help with the formation of the body. He chose a more refined method with a similar principle this time.

This first iteration were frames made for the small and medium-sized souls among the batch. They would use the core technology similar to Al'Zalsar. These were also easier to manufacture, which was why he started with them.

He just had to create a blueprint for the frame with the specific interfaces he would need to later insert the core and proceed with the soul music in the room that was currently under construction.

Using the tower's maintenance drones, Seth was adding another room to his workshop. The blacksmith had come up with a static formation that would ease the creation of Faer. With this formation, he would just need to insert magic crystals and sing his music to facilitate the recreation of a fleshly body atop the metal frames.

It wasn't as handy or mobile, but a lot more efficient.

For the bigger souls, he planned on getting more involved himself. Instead of the core blueprint, he was going to infuse the souls directly into the material, similar to how he did it with Ceres. This would lead to a closer attachment between body and soul, but also take more time. He would start working on them once he finished his armor.

Once he had checked the golem forge and the progress of construction of the formation, he returned to the boots.

For the boots, he had obtained the soul of a creature called the Rabbit of Caerbannog. According to the goat, it was a great beast feared for its quick and devastating attacks A beast so vile it could only be ended by a holy artifact.

Although the soul was epic, it was only big because of the damage done by said artifact. Seth also so no possibility to repair it, he could only increase its size and refine it to assure its efficacy.

From this mighty soul, he forged the soul boots and engraved them with the Sigil of Alecto's Rush. Her name meant something along the lines of 'the implacable or unceasing anger'. Judging by the name, Seth came to the conclusion that this was something like a charge attack.

<Ding! You have finished a legendary item! +1 to all attributes.>

<Ding! A synergy between powers has changed your item.>

<Ding! A synergy between skills has unlocked a new option.>

The notifications sounded after the blacksmith infused the soul armaments and finished the boots in the waters of Styx.

<Piprima

Legendary

Scorpio Set 1/X

Pipirima-Set 1/2

Phys. Def.:2400

Mag: Def:2400

Durability: 6666

1. 80% Damage Negation