Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

“T-Tored, wait!?” Seth tried to protest when the dwarf started to climb on his shoulder to get a closer look at his helmet Laraweg.

“Tremendous...” the dwarf mumbled under his breath. “ To think I would get the chance to see something made from legendary dragon scales...But what is it alloyed with? A material of similar quality, but I can't quite identify it,” he spoke to himself, while he inspected the demonic runes on Shaula, his pauldrons.

“These demonic runes, although I can't read them, they really work well in bringing together the set, interacting with the base trait of this other material. There are effects that seem hard to implement. Is that the power of <Soul infusion>?” he mused as he came off his shoulder and worked his way along his arms, checking Lesath and Graffias.

“There are quite a lot of different effects, but you did a good job to make sure that they not only not get in each other's way, but also work together to compliment the overall set,” he praised appreciatively.

What the dwarf finally focused on was the change to the gloves he and Nädel had once made for Seth and the changes it had gone through. Maybe he had still underestimated the power that came with being able to infuse souls.

<Trignis Glove Left...><Trignis Glove Right...>

“You actually managed to further improve them to such a degree...Marvelous. To think one of my students would get this far...”

Maybe it was an illusion, but he could have sworn that he saw a tear in the corner of the dwarf's eyes. But it was not yet time to cry. While Tored was still trying to cope with the armor, he pulled out his Giant's Meteor Rod and Antares, making the dwarf choke further. These were only his early works, Seth wanted to show the dwarf even more.

“These are my early ones, this is ones of the latest,” the tower master announced and brought out the Storm of Death and the Harbinger of Winter Woes. When he saw these, the dwarf's eyes actually started tearing up. At the same time, the intense fire of curiosity burned in them.

“Can-Can I hold them?” the dwarven master asked hesitatingly. Seth saw no reason to deny his request and Tored took the Storm of Death with shaking hands. His eyes were glued to the item, as he appraised it and tried to find out where its effects came from.

“S-Seth, could it be that you met a tailor master?” a shaking, weak voice asked.

When Seth looked up he saw Nädel. Because of Tored's reaction, similar to some gold-hoarding squirrel, he had forgotten about the tailor. While Tored was preoccupied with the armor, Nädel had fallen silent and became pale at the sight of the Sky Set and Hekate's Cloak, as well as the Trignis Gloves.

“No, I made one. From now on, we will both work together to get to that stage,” Seth said with a smile before he explained to Nädel about Neeco Boos and what he was able to do thanks to Puffles.

“I see, so many of the threads you showed me..?”

“Yes, he made them as preparation for you and me raising our skills,” Seth said proudly.

“Th-Thank you. Really, Thank you so much!” Now it was Nädel's turn to cry. The tailor had been suffering for so long under the lack of high-ranking fabric and threads. With his talent, he could have been a master a decade ago, if it wasn't for the lack of good materials, hampering him on the last few levels. A grind, Seth could understand just too well.

Just how long did it take him, despite having a proficiency buff and making legendary items? The amount of proficiency the last levels of the craftsman tier needed was no joke. Neeco was lucky that Puffles decided to help him and gave him as much relic-rated <Sky Silk> as he needed. The positive side-effect was that the whole Oathguard had relic-rated underwear, and gambesons or robes to wear with their armor.

With him boasting about his legendary items, a conversation started that led to the three of them sitting around the workshop, talking about Seth's experiences after he left Ora. Although they had kept writing letters, there was only so much one could convey like this. In this conversation, he also explained his current skills and the legendary path he chose.

“A Legendary Forger, huh? It sounds like a cumbersome path, but it could really open a lot of possibilities later on. Being able to forge or mass-produce legendary items is vastly overpowered if you get to that stage,” Nädel commented.

“Being able to refine iron and silver to a legendary level is already shocking, but even being able to alleviate relic-rated materials to a legendary level...” Tored mumbled.

“Yeah, well, I found out about it by accident, when I got my hands on some <Adamantium>. I was able to use a relatively small amount of Power of Existence to turn the <Artificial Adamantium> I looted from the Church of Chains into the real thing by re-smelting it,” Seth explained in detail. When he said that, Tored's eyes shot wide open.

“Hold on, if you can turn <Artificial Adamantium> into <Adamantium>, then we just struck gold. I have spent almost three decades trying to recreate <Adamantium>. Although ultimately failed to recreate the alloy, I can make something that is judged <Lesser Adamantium>. I'm sure it works the same!” Tored said excitedly.

“hold your horses, it still takes the power of existence to do I,” Seth tried to reign in the dwarf's excitement. His current daily gain of PoE was around 200. This meant he could refine one bar of <Adamantium> every two days if he wasn't saving up for his level of existence. But he was saving up!

“Oh, right. Of course, but I could prepare <Lesser Adamantium> and when your gain per day rises, you could start re-smelting them to the actual thing.” the dwarf suggested, not giving up.

“Let's talk about it in the future, when I grew as a Legendary Forger. After all, we will still have to talk to Mary about the funds for that project. I can't believe something like <Lesser Adamantium> would be cheap,” Seth dodged the question.#

“True that...” the dwarf agreed, reminiscent of the fortune he had sunken in the attempt to create a legendary material. “Then how about the present? You've shown us a lot of stuff you prepared for Nädel, but what about me? How can I help?” he asked looking forward to what Minas Mar had in store.

Seth had written him once in a while and mentioned the stuff they had, like <Ithildin> and urthan <Ithildin>. However, the reason Seth had been looking forward to Tored's arrival was not to have his master-slave away making items.

“Actually, I hoped you could help me with master-tier enchantments and coming up with set equipment. Also, I would like the teaching of our blacksmiths to you.”

What Seth had been looking forward to was Tored's Wisdom. Despite coming far in the past three years, Seth still lacked a stable foundation and experience. This was especially true when he was supposed to help and teach the others. He had just begun catching up on his lacking knowledge, so it was a great relief to have a blacksmith with centuries of experience to ask for help and advice.

“I kinda hoped you would let me work on legendary stuff...” Tored said a little deflated.

“It's not legendary, but maybe you could help our young Armorer, Wedan, deal with relic-rated material from an exotic native creature?” Seth tried to cheer him up.

“A native creature you say?” the dwarf's curiosity was ignited again. There were many materials he didn't know here, many were relic-rated by nature. There was a possibility that Tored was able to come up with a legendary set, using relic-rated materials.

“Since we are on the topic, let me introduce them to you,” Seth ended their conversation and led the two of them to meet Neeco, Wedan, Hoen, and the others.