Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Looking at the stack of paper and wishing to have less work, Seth suddenly had an idea. One that would save him a lot of time! He had read about it in some novels, he couldn't believe that he had forgotten it.

In olden times, craftsmen had to produce a journeyman's piece or a masterpiece to have their skills acknowledged by their guilds. He would do exactly that! All of the applications that made it through to him were already judged as trustworthy, although some of these texts made them unsympathetic.

In the end, skill should talk more than personality. This way he could quickly weed out the ones without talent.

"Mary!" he stormed the office of Hestia's chosen.

He recoiled at the sight before him. Despite the thick black bags under her eyes, Mary's face wore a creepy smile as her hands moved at a speed that was hard to follow with normal vision. Even with <Teia's Vision> it was still fast.

The blacksmith needed a moment to understand that she wasn't just moving the papers back and forth, but actually reading and stamping or signing them. What kind of ungodly skills had she been bestowed by Hestia to support this kind of performance?

"What is it?" she asked emotionless, without slowing her actions even once.

"Ah... errm..." Seth hesitate. He almost felt a little bad that he was going to add another burden for her team, just to free up some of his time. But not enough to not do it.

"I have a great idea for the selection of people for our production team. So..."

Mary sighed. The bard had no idea how she did it. It was like a disembodied sigh that just sounded in the room because none of the usual movements that should have accompanied a sigh were there. She had managed to generate a defeated sigh, without halting her movements, drooping her shoulder, or even breathing out.

"What do you need me to do?"

her eyes literally started flickering as her eyes constantly switched between reading a new document and staring at him discouragingly. It didn't discourage him, but it sure as hell creeped him out. He brought out a stack of papers from his inventory. They were those he had already checked and those he had not checked yet.

"...Contact these guys and tell them to send in an item that best represents their skills. The deadline should be in a week. "

Seth had thought about putting up some criteria like a restriction on materials or the kind of item to make, but in the end, he only decided to give a deadline. Restriction may have worked for a fair comparison of skills, but it was not necessarily fair to the applicants.

A representative should be able to encompass all the abilities, skills, and resources an applicant could muster. Seth also didn't want to try and come up with a single item for every crafting class that applied.

When everyone sent some item they could appraise, Seth could get the others to help judge their skills. Making the armor undergarments for the Oathguards and Faer using <Celestial Bronze>, Neeco had become a craftsman tailor in the meantime. More than enough to judge the work of other tailors.

Seth trusted the eyes of Wedan and Hoen enough, even though they had not yet reached the craftsman tier. Bowyer Bess and Daimon had also become journeymen while Seth had been away. The supply of good materials had helped them a lot of polish the skills of their previous lives and attain new heights.

There was also Orry Abel who was doing well learning enchantments. His judgment pertaining to jewelry could not be underestimated. For potions and stuff like that, there was obviously Alison. Evee too, but she had other things to do.

With that they had an expert for almost all production classes, lessening Seth's workload once again.

"Fine, leave the applications on the table over there. I will have someone take care of it," Mary complied, breaking his thoughts.

"Great! Thanks, Mary."

Jubilant Seth quickly got out of the office. With this, he had bout a whole week of freedom. And what was he going to do in this week? With some time eked out from his duties, the blacksmith planned to finally explore his new class advancement.

The call of the maestro allowed him to learn all production skills and primary skills. It also added the ability to appraise everything based on his own skill in the primary skill of the class. If he could learn the fundamentals for most production classes, he would be able to appraise almost every item the applicants were going to send. On the matter of appraisal, there was also <Theia's discerning Eyes> that would greatly help him.

Seth also had some items waiting on him. One was finishing Jonah's new Mask. The other was a bow and mace for Lydia, especially a bow. She currently had a bow made by Bess, but performance obviously lacked compared to his Mind Reaper bow.

The chosen of Wepwawet, or rather her divine sugar daddy, had even provided him with special rated materials to make one of the weapons out of. A copper-colored metal bar that was called <Wepwawet's Marrow>. A bundle of white strings called <Wepwawet's Sinew> and a piece of timber called <Wepwawet's Withered Sidder>.

Although it was called marrow, it was definitely a metal. Seth saw no problem making a mace or club from it. It was different for the wood. Unlike Bess, Seth was no bowyer. It was rather obvious that the sinew and siddar wood were meant for the bow, but the blacksmith had no skills for woodworking or traditional bow making.

His best bow was the Mind Reaper, and its power solely relied on the fact that he managed to find a very special piece of wood that had a synergy with his usage of souls. Although he could forge and reinforce the wood, non-metal bows would not gain the same improvements through his mastered skills.

That was, of course, before his second class advancement. Seth intended to gain and level the <Carpentry> skill in the following week. It was the primary skill for carpenters and other classes based on it like bowyers.

He was also interested in how much the <Composer of Fusion> would help in making the bow, but first, he wanted to acquire skills. Since his office time for today had ended after shoving his idea and work back to Mary, he joyfully ran down to his workshop.

His <Blacksmith> skill allowed him to work with wood to a certain extent since he needed it to make things like shafts for pole arms or weapon handles. However, he had never acquired the <Carpentry> skill from doing this. It just showed how hard it was to acquire a skill far outside one's class without any external help.

Things were different now. With <Master of all Trades> and his ability to work with high-rated woods, Seth could simply grab one of the epic-rated pieces of timber from the Hangingtree, borrow some of Bess's tools and-

< Ding! You have learned Carpentry(Beginner) lv.1. Please check your skill window.>

The moment the draw knife touched the wood, he heard the system notification. He froze for a moment and blinked in surprise. It was real, he had actually gained the skill that easily. Now it was time to grow it.