Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The snake had already reached the next floor! Seth had thoroughly blocked the door to the staircase and he would definitely NOT unblock it to take the stairs to the roof.

He needed to find another way. Climbing probably. Oh, what a joy, climbing up the front a building, with an injured leg, 3 floors above a snake infested ocean of doom.

"Yay...", he mumbled.

But how should he get up there? He did not have the time to just make a grappling hook from scratch, as he had no raw materials.

He was about to use his <Fire Manipulation> to improvise a grappling hook from the weapons in his inventory when his eyes fell onto an office chair. Or its base, to be more specific.

"Ha ha, let′s hurry!", with that he grabbed the cross-shaped base of the office chair. This was almost a ready-made grappling hook! A torturous headache was building up in his head as he used <Fire Manipulation> to cover his hands in flame and melt through the gas spring to get rid of the seat-part. Next, Seth heated the limbs of the base and bend them the opposite way, into proper hooks with his bare hands.

<Ding! Ability: Fire Manipulation lv.4 has become Fire Manipulation lv.5>

It felt as if his head was about to split, when he used his pinky to poke a holed for the rope into the almost liquid handle of his new makeshift grappling hook!

When the flame finally shriveled up it was as if all warmth had left his body.

He summoned the water barrel and dunked the hook in, before collapsing beside it. Just a short break... he felt so cold and empty. So, this was the backlash of overusing an ability....

WHUMPH! Crash!

That sounded like his second barrier was gone. Seth fumbled for the hook in the ice-cold water and ended up toppling the barrel, getting drenched in cold water. He felt so weak. With heavy breathing he picked himself up and stumbled towards the broken window. Shaking, freezing hands threaded the rope through hole on the hook. "Oh, please...."

"Shit!", he cursed. This crash came from right behind the door. "This has to work..."

Seth had never thrown a grappling hook! He had a little experience in climbing, but never needed something like this. He could only do what he had seen on TV. He swung it in circles to gain momentum and let it fly over the edge of the rooftop. Now he had rope it back in and hope, that the hooks caught the edge!

Tink!

Oh! The "tink" of hope! The glimmer of hope grew, when he pulled on the rope it didn't come lose.

WHUMPH! The desks at the door shook!

Seth stored away his gear to lose weight and wound the rope around himself. He gripped tightly and jumped out the window. For a moment he dangled above the abyss, then he smashed into the wall and almost lost grip. This would have hurt less with his armor...

He was cold and his leg hurt like hell. Still, he started inching up the rope. He had to reach the rooftop.

"Damned Snakes...stupid ****! You will regret this... if this was not fricking water world, I would burn you all to crisp!", with each step he kept cursing the snakes that had gotten him into this situation. It did not make sense, but it gave him strength. Each burst of anger gave him a little bit of power to go on.

When his numb fingers finally reached the roof edge-

WHUMPH! The juvenile Titanoboa had broken his last defenses and entered the management floor.

Seth, on the other hand, just pulled himself over the roof edge and flopped onto the roof. All tension in his body was gone and he was completely exhausted. As he laid there and listened, he could hear the giant body slithering on the floor below him. A sound unlike anything he ever heard. He could hear it nearing the window he jumped out from. Was it finally over?

Seth clung to roof edge to hide behind it and closed his eyes. He instinctively used <Concealment> waiting for the inevitable.

Crunch! The shattering of glass.

Seth trembled from the cold and fear.

<Ding! Passive Skill: Fear Resistance has become lv.7!>

He jerked from the sound of the system notification! This did not help at all!

Silence.

Above him towered a head as bigger than himself, attached to a tree trunk of a neck that led to somewhere beyond the roof′s edge. It was right above him as it swung it′s head left and right, scanning the roof.

Seth shivered, his leg hurt, twitched and his eyelids flickered, but his eyes were focused. Focused on that soft delectable underbelly.

At no point did it leave his sight as his body tensed like a coiled spring and exploded into motion.

A mighty jump brought him high in the air! His sword appeared in his hand and he stabbed at the snake's lower jaw.

Before the snake could even react, the sword easily penetrated skin and skull, lodging deep into its brain!

<Ding! 2x Sneak attack damage!>

<Ding! Critical hit! You have damaged targets brain!>

<Ding! Skill: Weapon Mastery (Adept) lv.1 has become Weapon Mastery (Adept) lv.2!>

<Ding! Skill: Calm Reaction (Passive) lv.5 has become Calm Reaction (Passive) lv.6!>

Relief washed over him when he saw the titan's health bar empty out! A burning ball of light, the size of a basketball emerged from its head!

<Ding! You have killed -Juvenile Titanoboa lv.17- You have earned Experience.>

<Ding! "You have killed an opponent more than 5 levels higher than yourself! Only 0,24% of the players have achieved this! All Attributes +2>

<Ding! Title: "Giant Slayer" gained. "You have killed an opponent tremendously larger than yourself!" +20% damage increase against large opponents.>

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.10!>

<Ding! Inventory has been extended.>

<Ding! New Class Skill has been unlocked. Check your Skill Window!>

<Ding! You have completed the quest -The Next Level- You have earned new System Rights.>

<Ding! Title: "Survivor" gained. "You are the 8th who has completed the quest -The Next level-!" END+5>

<Ding! You have received follow-up quest -The Next Level 2-!>

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.11!>

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.12!>

The system kept ringing in his ears, as Seth desperately tried to get out from under the giant snake's corpse. It had collapsed in the moment of his death and almost managed to crush him to death.

Tired and panting he crawled away from under the enormous head and gave it a petty kick.

"Heh! Who′s the vicious serpent now, eh?", he wanted to laugh, but only a pathetic coughing left his throat. With his last bit of energy, he collected the soul and he lost consciousness.

Bright sunshine fell onto him. He grunted as he unwillingly opened his eyes. It was morning. He had a disgusting taste in his mouth. Squinting hard he oriented himself on the rooftop.

Rumble!

What was that?! Seth hurried to stand up. It was not the boa; the snake was still dead!

RUMBLE!

It was... his stomach! It communicated to him with its mighty roar! Looking at the titan he had slain last night,

"Yes, I DESERVE a mighty breakfast after that..."

As old tradition of heroic tales postulates, the first thing after a great victory was of course the great feast!

After plundering his rations like a Viking and filling his stomach to the brim, he felt a lot better. His Leg also felt a lot better. "Status?"

Name: Seth Smith

Title: "Faster than the Thought"

Level: 12

Exp: 8%

Race: Ori Huma

Sex: Male

Age:23

Class: Spirit Blacksmith (Unique)

Affiliation: None

Health: 832/1000

Mana: 160/214.2(210+4.2)

Strength:37

Dexterity:37

Agility: 27

Intelligence:16+5

Willpower:27

Endurance:37

Personality:12

Luck:17

Free AP (Attribute points): 33

Free SP (Skill points): 8

Defense:

Physical: 241 (111+50+80) (ENDx3)

Magical: 94 (54+25+15) (WILx2)

Fire Resistance :100% (50%+70%)

Seth′s health had started recovering! That was good! It actually jumped up while he was looking at it! Is endurance had greatly increased, did it maybe work like vitality in some games?

He hardly remembered all the notifications he had gotten after killing the juvenile, so he checked all the windows to not miss anything. He remembered something about skills, so that was the first thing he checked. As his second most viewed window, he immediately saw the changes.

Skill Window:

Calm Reaction (Passive) lv.6

Blacksmith (Apprentice) lv.7 (40%)

Blacksmith's Eyes lv.3

Fire Manipulation lv.5

Blueprint (Apprentice) lv.2

Weapon Mastery (Adept) lv.2 (92%)

Spirit Smithy lv.2

Spirit Capture lv.3

Map lv.2

Fear Resistance lv.7

Fire Affinity lv.8

Soul Infusion lv.2

Observation lv.2

Concealment lv.3

Enchantment (Beginner) lv.1

The first thing that caught his attention was the new skill! Looking at the description he understood why <Soul Infusion> was titled a "primitive enchantment"

<Enchantment (Beginner) lv.1

-Unlocks the Enchantment Catalog

The Skill of bestowing an object with a magical property. >

The skill description was quite lacking, but he soon found out why. The enchantment catalog gave more information.

The catalog was a window with several tabs. The descriptions of the 4 tabs gave a deeper insight about the branches of the skill.

Scan, Magic Circuits, Forging Ballads, Enchantments

The Enchantments-Tab was grayed out, so he could only guess what it did by method of elimination.

Magic Circuits worked by creating specific ways for the magic power to travel like engraving or inlays. When magic was flowing in these lines the weapon or armor could obtain a specific effect.

Forging Ballads was described as singing or chanting during the forging to weave the magic property into the material. It was similar to <Soul Infusion>.

But different from <Soul Infusion> both seemed to need external power to be activated and were not permanently active.

Enchantments would then have to be something a magician or wizard did traditionally in games. Seth was a Blacksmith, so it was probably grayed out because of his class.

<Enchantment> was different from <Blueprint>, as he did not get any beginner enchantments to train with. The Scan-Tab was an empty window with a something like an item slot. His game knowledge told him that he would most likely have to collect examples himself... what a pain.

He tried putting his ring in, but was told that his skill level was too low to scan it!

<Enchantment> was obviously a complex skill and this was not really the time to-

Wait!? The level of <Map> had gone back to two!? Did he get special treatment for praying or was it a f*cking joke?! After all, this overpowered skill had been almost useless in his situation.

At least he had gotten back the SP. He had a lot of SP now.

He also remembered something about a quest, Seth never really payed much attention to the quest window, so it was his first time noticing a different tab in the window.. It was labeled as system and he found -The Next Level- and -The Next Level 2- lit up.