Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Leana, stay back for a moment."

They had talked for a good while about the details of what came next and had just finished. Mary left to take care of the administrative side while Karina returned to the children. However, he stopped the princess from leaving.

"Since we have finished talking about official business now, It's time to talk about something private."

Leana blushed a little, her face grew hot. The two of them were alone in the office, it was already late, and he suddenly mentioned talking about something personal... But he already had Mina and Fin!

She remembered her brother bringing up making Seth his brother-in-law and gulped. She was torn. It was true she was looking to maybe pick up a closer relationship with him, so she could be closer to Fin, but when it was him suddenly coming at her out of nowhere?

Should she resist so she wouldn't be hated by Fin? Or maybe she should just give in and hope Mina and Fin would welcome her like Mina did Fin? Her thoughts were out of control as she already started to imagine a night with him and one with him and Fin. She imagine how their relationship would work and-

"Hello? Urth to Leana, are you still with me? I reached lv.95 and wanted to ask you for information. I know I said I was going in blindly, but I got these weird quests and inevitably became curious. Leana?" he waved his hand before her eyes and brought her back from dreamland.

"What!? Ah! Oh... oh... What? You reached lv.95? T-That's great. Really great..." she stuttered. It had all been a misunderstanding. It was all just in her head, how embarrassing.

"Are you okay, Leana? You seem confused," Seth asked.

"Sure, sure, sorry. I was distracted. So what was it you wanted to know?" she asked, getting her bearings back.

Seeing that her attention was back on the conversation, Seth described what happened when he reached lv.95 and got the Quest: The Last Stretch.

"What exactly is this Power of Existence it mentioned?" the blacksmith finally came to the main topic. Leana who had managed to calm down while Seth talked, took a moment to formulate her answer.

"You probably heard about the status of a legend, right? After all, you already managed to create legendary items," she began.

"Right, I also had my own conjectures on what it might be about, especially when Puffles mentioned that it has something to do with actual legends, Relics always state that they can become legendary items if they become well known or have a big part in their wielder becoming a legend... but it can't be about simply becoming well-known, right?" the bard asked jokingly.

This had been his working theory for the longest time, but how would becoming well-known increase someone's power? Wouldn't stars and celebrities become literal gods for simply being popular? However, Leana answered with a pondering face.

"In a sense, it is just that," she answered him dryly. "You can't be serious. How would that work?"

"How do gods gain power?" the princess suddenly threw a question at him.

"Through believers and sacrifices?" he answered unsurely.

"Correct. Gods are born or created through the accumulation of beliefs from many people. Power of Existence works on a similar principle as the Power of Belief in deities and gods. There is power in the acknowledgment of intelligent life. The question is whether someone can harness it."

Suddenly, Seth was able to answer the question of why celebrities didn't become immortal gods to himself. Ordinary humans couldn't harness this power. They were like a boat without a sail. No matter how much wind blew, they didn't have a sail to catch it and advance.

"And the Path to Legend..?"

"Is the equivalent of the aspect, domain, or the authority of a god that allows you to harness this power." Leana completed his sentence. It was the sail that allowed them to catch the wind and advance.

"The system is a great help when trying to advance to become a legend. Even when it will stop all other support, your chance to become a legend is a lot higher than without it. These last five levels will be the hardest because each level up will tune your body toward the path you chose," Leana explained.

"When it says I lose all support, what exactly does it entail?"

"You won't gain free attributes or skill points anymore. You keep all the system privileges you earned so far if that is what you were worried about. Anyway, so you gain the Power of Existence through your path and the path also dictates what you can do with the power." Leana steered the conversation back to the topic.

"It mentioned that the path of Legendary Blacksmith would allow me to use the power to turn relic-rated items into legendary ones. How does that work?" Seth eagerly follows her back to the topic.

" Err, let's see how to explain. Right, you made an armor with dragon scales, right? Where do you think their powers come from?" because they come from a legendary creature, right?"

"Right and as part of the legend of dragons, "everyone knows" their scales are incredibly tough and protect dragons from almost anything. Their power is derived from their power of existence. If you were acknowledged as a Legendary Blacksmith, it's just common sense your items would be legendary too, right? You would use your power, to turn items into legends as an extension of your own saga.

Legendary items are also a good example. If a relic becomes a legend, the item's power would grow to match what people thought of it. For example, a very tough sword becoming indestructible, because people believe it to be so."

"Believe shaping reality..." the bard mumbled.

"Exactly, Power of Existence can tweak the rules of reality. Of course, you need a lot to have any major impact on anything. Even gods are limited on the aspect and scale of things."

Seth's thought took a weird turn at Leana's comment, as his mind wandered to the gods.

"That mean's the System God is a real big shot and an absolute tycoon, right?," he blurted out.

"None of us can even start to fathom the kind of business the System God is running..." was Leana's only comment.

"Anyways, to sum things up, you gain Power of Existence through the path you chose. It will limit how you gain power and what you can use it for. When you start off, you should primarily use it to increase your Level of Existence until you become a legend. In other words, once you are past level 100, Power of Existence is the experience you need to level up."

"And what does the level of existence do?" Since Seth had the chance, he was going to ask every question he had.

"It's the impact your existence has on people. How long they will remember you, and how likely it is for them to become fans or followers. Since you won't go around creating a cult of devoted believers, your power of existence will depend on the concurrent people knowing of your legend. Your level of existence helps in keeping those numbers high."

"I see, I see, so as long as my level of existence is high, I won't have to worry about making a publicity stunt every few weeks to bump up my income."

"Exactly."

"hmm, I think I have a rough understanding now. The next question would be my path, right? I wanted to ask you whether Chrona has a kind of catalog of known Paths and their unlock requirements. I can see almost two dozen paths in the window, but only two are available. To be honest, neither Legendary Blacksmith nor Legendary Goldsmith really speaks to me."

"We have some documentation from previous legends, but I don't have it here... What other paths are there? Maybe I can tell you some I remember." the princess offered and they started looking through the list of options.