Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The only reason he came to a halt was that he was thirsty and wanted to check his status. He had eradicated hundreds of dragon newts and not a few of them were lv.90 or above. Especially on the recent floors.

In the corner of his mind, he thought that they would probably make good golems, but currently, Seth just wanted to get rid of his frustration and immerse himself in the sea of flames. It felt like an eternity, that he just led loose and used his favorite power. There were more Dragon Newt dungeons in the Holy Land.

Looking at his status, he frowned, Despite his body count, his experience bar was only filled to about half. It was true, the amount needed past lv.90 grew exponentially. And this 50% was not solely what he gained in this dungeon.

After killing hundreds of mobs on the same level, he had gained maybe 10-20% of the experience needed for the next level. This was a crazy experience requirement, compared to earlier levels where this deed would suffice to rise one or two levels.

Having satisfied his curiosity, he took a sip of water an chowed down on an energy bar before entering the boss room. Sitting on a massive throne, sat a just as massive dragon newt. His snout was stouter, making him look closer to a dragon than a lizardman, like the other dragon newts.

Really the only difference Seth saw between them were the wings, scales and strength. The male boss on the throne had his wings folded away and wore and archaic chain shirt on top of his scales. It was combined with an intricate skirt and sash.

<Dragon Newt Elder Kazar lv.98>

However, what made this creature really stand out was the fact, that his status was also partially obscured, even to <Theia's Discerning Eyes>. He was a being on the same level as Tatzel. He could see his level and most of the status, but some parts were censored.

"You must be the one who has been crushing our younglings," Kazar spoke in a deep rumbling voice. The anger he felt was clearly audible in his tone.

"I can actually feel a comforting aura from you, so why are you being so cruel to us?" he asked with clenched fists.

A comforting aura? Was it because his armor granted a neutral relationship with dragons? Seth deliberated for a moment, whether he should just kill Kazar or humor his question for a moment. The blacksmith had spotted the dungeon core behind the throne, which meant this was surprisingly the last floor and the last boss. Kazar was the only one left here.

"You know what? I will tell you, so you can think about it once you respawn back in your home. I'm quite pissed because you killed the Naga before I had the chance to do so. You see, I really wanted to see if their soul had the same fortune effect as their materials. Now, I will never know because you asshats suddenly started conquering stuff."

"-Souls? Are you a demon, like that maestro?" Kazar asked, but he suddenly felt a hand grasping his face. When did he move?

"Enough talky talk. Time to die."

It was the first time for Kazar that flames cause him pain. It was also the last time in this iteration since his body could not resist the blaze. The pain was burned in his consciousness, as his head and body turned to ashes. He finally understood what his own victims felt like when he burned them to death.

<Ding! Title: "Ash Walker" gained. "You have cremated a whole dungeon's population." All fire-related skills are 5% stronger in dungeons. >

<Ding! Your title "Dragon Slayer(minuscule)" had evolved to "Dragon Slayer(minor)". The damage you deal to Dragon species has slightly increased. Your notoriety with the Dragon Race has slightly increased.>

"Where is the dungeon master? Come out or I destroy the core," he threatened after listening to the notification.

After the boss was defeated, Seth stepped up to the dungeon core. More often than not, the dungeon master was a different individual from the dungeon boss. When there was no answer whatsoever, except maybe the trembling of the core, Seth came to the conclusion that Kazar had fulfilled both roles.

The blacksmith seriously thought about breaking the core for real, instead of just threatening it. But decided against it in the end. He had flattened the dragon newts and calmed down for the most part. Destroying a dungeon, was only a loss to them in the future.

"Give me all the stuff you have and never accept a dragon newt as a dungeon master, boss, or mob again. If I hear that you did, I will break you without remorse." he threatened the core, as he had learned it from Fin.

"Is this all?" Seth asked a little surprised. This was no small dungeon, and there were no raiders before him, but the core only spat out a small chest with roughly 50 gold. The core trembled vehemently and suddenly spat out a pure white horn.

<Naga Horn (Crafting Material)

Epic

The horn of a high-ranking Naga. Holds properties of Magic, Transformation, Fire, and Fortune.>

"Fine, you live to grow another dungeon."

Seth bagged the horn and left the dungeon through the teleport formation that had appeared after he killed the boss. Outside he checked his inventory. He had burned all the mobs to ashes, so he was not left with a lot.

Apart from the dungeon chest, he got a lump of molten metal from the boss and 125 epic-rated dragon newt souls of medium size. He guessed that he had killed roughly 700 of the lizards. This meant the drop rate was really a little increased from 5-10% to 15-20% thanks to Graffias.

This was not a bad haul, taking into account that the dragon newt souls gave a buff to physical damage, fire resistance, and an overall improvement of 10% defense. The latter showed their heritage as dragonkin as it was most likely the degraded effect of a dragon's damage nullification.

These were the souls that naturally dropped, so Seth became quite curious about what a soul he harvested would look like. It was a good thing that there was a whole faction of dragon newts in the holy land. There was more than one dungeon he could plunder to experiment.

The only thing slightly worrisome was the "Dragon Slayer" title. He didn't know whether it would grow even further if he kept killing dragon newts, or if this was it. After all, it could be that the title would grow dependent on the quality of the dragonkin he killed, not the number.

For now, his scorpion armor fixed his relationship with dragons to a neutral status. But what if he didn't wear the full set? Would dragons start coming to look for a fight with him? If it ever came to that, he hoped Al would return before that happened. A Dragon Slaying Sorceress was definitely a good deterrence for dragons, right?

By the time Seth returned on Puffles' back, the battle was already over. The enemy camp had been stormed and completely razed to the ground. He was the first of the higher-ups to return.

"Seth, you are already back?" Link greeted him when he entered the canteen of Minas Palan, his first destination upon return.

Since Link had neglected his levels once he found his true passion in cooking, he had also taken part in the battle, to defeat the outliers of higher levels and take apart monsters with promising cooking ingredients.

Apart from him, there were three other chefs he had chosen from the applicants. Those three were currently cooking food for the canteen, while Link was simply supervising them, still wearing the armor, stained from battle and dismantling monsters.

"Wanna eat together?" Link invited him friendly.

"Sure, it will probably take a while for the others to return."

Seth happily agreed and they began stuffing themselves, not having to fear that Fin would vacuum away their food when they weren't looking.