Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"I guess? I never saw a "real" fortune teller before." Seth said as he prepared the materials for the crossbow.

~ Don't compare her to a fortune teller. That like calling me an illusionist or whatever you called those quacks. You should get closer to her; she could be useful in the future. ~

He stopped for a moment to think. Getting close to a clumsy beauty who played an aloof, ethereal diviner as a job... Meh, maybe if he got the chance later on. He shoved a piece of <Magic Steel> into the forge when he heard a knock on the door.

If this was the diviner then the coincidence was simply too great. He called for the visitor to enter and barely remembered to remove the steel from the forge. It would have been a shame if he burned a rare material because of his forgetfulness.

"Sir, I brought the information on Argiri."

It was a clerk sent by Samuel that brought him the information on the quest area. He took the file from the clerk and thanked him before he left. He put the file on his desk and got back to the forge.

For the crossbow, Seth had created a new blueprint, since all the blueprints he had were crossbows that used wood for the body of the weapon. Using <Blueprint> he created a crossbow completely made from metal and bone, which was closer to a tactical crossbow as Seth had seen on the internet.

He also added a modern magazine for the bolts. Imagine the power of reduced reload time coupled with a skill like <Multishot> that magically doubled the bolts after shooting.

Once the blueprint was finished, he got right into forging the crossbow limbs from <Magic Steel>. He used this material because <Magic Steel> was good in imbuing properties and he had a lot of it. He used the same ballad as he did on his "Wyvern Ring "so the crossbow could add curses to bolts. For the soul, he used once again a medium-sized monster soul.

The process was very similar to the time when he built the hunter bow. A little more complicated, since he had to keep the soul split between the limbs and the body while singing his ballad at the same time.

He used some of the rib bones from the snake for the handle scales. It was mostly for aesthetics. And similar to his own bow he used some of the <Celestial Bronze> for the string.

He was glad that the system simplified many of the crafting processes like heat treatment and quenching. Otherwise, it would have taken Seth quite long to produce something similar to spring steel.

Since Seth was already largely used to the materials and the construction he did not have to spend too long on the crossbow.

He carved the enchantments onto the limbs. To enchant the crossbow he used the complex circuits for paralysis and silence. The logic was simple in theory. On one hand, there was Tekar who could shower the enemy with debuffs in a melee battle, and on the other, there was Link, who could aim at casters and other ranged opponents.

And then there was their wizard that could also use all kinds of magic for damage and more. The only role Seth still wanted to fill was a strong melee damage dealer. Seth was able to deal a good amount of damage thanks to his items but lacked melee skills that made the best use of these items.

Take a skill like <Heavy Blow> that could multiply the output and deal several times the weapon damage. It was a normal skill for a common warrior to have. Also, Seth did not want to be the main fighter. He wanted a party so he could leave this stuff to them!

But with this Seth was sure, that they would be able to manage anything not too overwhelmingly powerful, despite Urth being a lot scarier than Seth had thought. Even if the enemy was strong, if it could not move because of constant stuns, what could it do?

Seth felt very satisfied when he looked at the finished crossbow.

<Nightmare Crossbow

Epic

Damage: 510

Durability: 2600

1. 35% chance to cause mental disruption on hit (Effects: Stun/Confusion)

2. 15% chance for a random curse to be added to an attack

3. 60% chance to silence a target on hit

4. 12% chance to paralyze a target on hit

5. 5% chance to poison a target on hit

6. 5% chance to burn target on hit

A new take on a crossbow by Journeyman Smith. Thanks to structure and design the reload speed is increased by 30% and there is a rapid-fire mode. The item sports superior performance thanks to special treatment. A nightmare for anyone that is on the wrong side of this weapon.>

Seth nodded. The crossbow looked pretty decent. The bone elements and string even gave a low poison and burn chance.

On top of the crossbow, he decided to make a kitchen knife for the gourmet hunter. No, not a kitchen knife. A mithril knife for dismantling. It was nothing fancy. I was enchanted with superior sharpness, the complex circuit for sharpness which also helped with the edge retention and +35 strength so the hunter could dismantle even the toughest corpses.

With this, Seth had more or less finished all the items he had wanted to make. He sat down to read the file about Arigiri. The city had been devastated by the first invasion of the merpeople. At this point, it was a ghost city. Mostly monster-infested ruins were left. The beasts' levels were in the mid-30s on average, so slightly higher than their party's average. But still high enough that Y-City lacked people for a sweep to clean up the area.

The most numerous were the beasts like the one that was used at the auction. Big amphibious berserker fish. But other maritime life was crawling inside the ruins that were given up by their previous inhabitants. It was really not a place for a 17- or 18-year-old girl to stay.

After reading the file Seth felt bored and decided to make some more arrow and crossbow bolt heads. He still had 85 snake teeth and decided to use 45 of them to make roughly 250 heads for arrows and bolts. With this, there would be another small chance to poison the target, as long as some magic was channeled into the projectile before firing.

He packed away the tips and finished for the day. It was already late, but he left his room and went to the reception. He asked them to send a messenger to the members of his party so they could meet up tomorrow. He would give them their equipment and brief them on their first mission.

He also instructed them to buy readymade arrow shafts and bolts. Seth did not want to bother with making those himself. He did not have a skill for that, so it was not his job! Why waste time on something, if it does not even help grind his skills?

With thoughts of the next day, he returned to his room and got ready for the night.