Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Here's the copy of the Paths to Legend Chrona knows of," Leana said unceremoniously, she looked tired.

"Did you even sleep since yesterday? You should take a break once in a while. Don't overwork yourself," he advised her as he took the booklet. He had heard that the princess had barely left her office since he returned, probably not since she got that news from Cade. The signs finally started showing.

"I would love to, but there is way too much to do, even with Mary and her people doing the lion part of the work. I take this little errand job to give everyone who stayed home their copy as a break..." she answered with a brave smile.

"You are a competent leader, Leana. You out of all of us, should know best that you aren't helping anybody by overworking yourself. Rushing things will only make the final result sloppy or even fail," he said as he put the booklet aside.

"How can you stay so relaxed and calm, when you also know what is going on in Y-City?" she finally asked. Seth tapped with his finger on the workbench for a moment, as he thought about his answer.

"I will be honest, I know my priorities. Am I angry and appalled? Yes. But at the end of the day, I treasure the people I love more and I constantly think of what could happen to them if we rush things. What if we make a mistake and fall into their trap? What if they have some super powerful secret weapon? What if I- … This is why I prefer making preparations and taking the way that will ensure our safety, even if it means that we let bad things happen for a while longer."

"But still, we have no idea how many are dying while we are-"

"Leana, I believe you are a good person and you want to save as many as possible. I, on the other hand, am a selfish person. I'm not ready to risk mine or the life of my friends to help others... Hmm, that reminds me of someone. " Suddenly had a brilliant idea.

"Can you tell Cade to send us pictures of the situation there? Maybe a video would be even better."

"Why the sudden question?" the princess was confused by the sudden topic change.

"Let's just say I know someone whose life I am willing to risk. He could help Cade save people, while we are preparing."

Seth doubted Leana was the only one stressed by the situation. If this would help to calm them, he was willing to make some concessions and show forgiveness.

"I see, I guess that could work. I will ask Cade for video proof right away," she mumbled before hurriedly running off. It didn't seem like she learned anything from Seth's serious talk. He could only sigh and shrug his shoulders.

"Wolfram, can you retrieve that item for me?" he asked after calling out the gray knight.

"Of course, Lord." "I wish you would stop calling me that." "I'm sorry, Lord. I'm afraid I can't do that." "You watched too many movies..."

"This conversation serves no further purpose. I will leave now," he said and walked to the workshop door.

"At least he didn't call me lord before leaving...." Seth mumbled to himself. Wolfram halted for a hot second.

"Lord." He spoke one word before running off, out of the workshop.

"..." it was great the golems developed, but why did he have to act like a teenager?

Being left alone in the workshop, Seth finally had the chance to have a look at the booklet. Similar to the list of paths the quest asked him to choose from, the booklet was a catalog of oaths, their power, and the unlock conditions.

The entries, like Leana before, confirmed his suspicions that paths could be unlocked through a combination of skills, achievements, and titles. Of course, the first things he looked up were the paths he had partially unlocked. "Legendary Craftsman" for example. However, the moment he saw the unlock condition, he decided that it was not worth it.

<Legendary Craftsman

All items made using the master-tier crafting skills will gain a basic bonus based on the level of existence. Any Relic-Rated items have a chance to upgrade instantly after completion. Chance increases with level of existence. Domain allows the bearer to use Power of Existence to artificially improve a relic to the legendary ranking.

The upgrade will give bonus to basic stats(Attack, Defense, Durability) and may offer options to slightly manipulate the enchantments and synergies.

Achievements needed to unlock:

1. Master of at least 5 basic crafting skills.

2. The creation of one legendary item per mastered skill using the mastered skill.>

It also had a short list of skills attached that have and have not been counted as the five skills to be mastered. <Enchantment> and <Alchemy> for example were excluded from "basic crafting skills"

The only question Seth was bothered with, however, was who in the world had so much time at hand to master that many basic crafting skills? Seth had all kinds of improvements that allowed him to barely bring three crafting skills to the master level in a relatively short time.

However, this only worked for those three. The blacksmith didn't get his hope up to master <Carpentry>, <Instrument Maker>, or <Sewing> any time in the near future, even if he completely focused on them.

"Blacksmith of Legends" was only mentioned in passing by the booklet. He was not the first to partially unlock the option, but it seemed like nobody of Chrona had ever disclosed what it took to unlock the path if anybody ever even managed to.

The other path he found was "Calamity of Fire". According to the description in the booklet, the calamity of fire could use its power of existence to make in fire unnaturally destructive. Even to the point of ignoring defense and harming existences originally immune to fire. This didn't sound too bad.

The entry named various fire-related Titles, the mastery of fire magic or a similar ability, and another requirement. Seth was relatively sure he fulfilled the title and skill requirement, but the last requirement was not something he was willing to commit.

"Causing a calamity with a death count of at least 5000 innocent intelligent creatures" The third option stated quite clearly that a calamity hat to strike incredible fear into the hearts of people. He wasn't a saint, but committing a slaughter for more powerful fire? Denied.

Although he found a few, most of his partial paths were not there. Even though he couldn't find the paths such as "Rhyme Caster" or "Wordsmith", he found a bunch of bard-related paths. It showed him quite clearly that his lack of skill was probably the reason those paths were not unlocked. The bard-related paths all relied on a combination of titles and skill levels. Only a few required a specific achievement.

In the end, the booklet was no great help for him. There were no paths that interested him, that he could easily unlock, and the one path he had partially unlocked and really interested him, "Blacksmith of Legends", was not in the booklet.

Maybe he would really have to decide between "Legendary Blacksmith" and the "Architect of Life". It irked him that he once again stood before the decision to either become a better craftsman or create stronger minions when he really wanted both. If he was allowed to make a custom order, a path that also included his bardic skill would be even better. Something like the Legendary Jamming Blacksmith of Legends?

Putting the booklet aside, he decided to delay the decision again. He felt depressed since there was no option that spoke to him. Maybe it was like he told Bement? Just acting naturally would open the right doors instead of forcing something. He felt better about not making a decision now than forcing one.

It wasn't like stepping on the path would be immediately helpful anyway. Maybe if he chose "Architect of Life" and could instantly rank up to a legend. There was no way it was that easy. His temporary goal of quickly choosing a path had dramatically failed.

There was no use procrastinating any longer. The blacksmith still needed to wait for the Hangingtree to become a legend before continuing on his instrument. He had left processing the left-over legendary to accessories to Sivri... Nothing more important stood in his way anymore.

It was time to make a complete Armor of Lunacy.