Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Crimson Flood caused all wounds in a radius of 3m around the user to bleed. The effect depended on the area, not a specific time, and dealt 1% of his physical attack damage every 20 seconds. Lastly, <Scourge of the Battlefield> increased intimidation, with each consecutive kill, which could cause status ailments like fear or panic.

The unique skills of the left blade were Weather Master, Riptide, and the passive skill <Messiah of the Dessert>. Like Blade Master, Weather Masted improved the skill corresponding to Maahes' Divinity of Weather.

Riptide increased the power and range of water-type weather magic like <Torrential Rains>, increasing their chance to stagger and weaken the enemy. Lastly, <Messiah of the Desert> increased the power of all skills, when in a desert.

As for the effects both blades had, they were the increase of divine skills, as well as Slaughter Blade.

The latter allowed the blade to repair itself with the blood of enemies. Wounds also had a low chance to temporarily weaken the target and buff the user.

The slaughter blades as a pair were a powerful fit to the Slaughterer’s set, however, the left blade was not universally applicable to every warrior. Although it dealt magic-type damage, the effects only applied to people that dealt with weather-type skills.

The right blade was not bad, yet Seth was confident he would be able to make a better weapon, depending on material and specialization on the user’s needs. Of course, there was always the choice to enchant them further using <Soul infusion>, but this was a different issue altogether.

Although the options may change slightly if he didn’t use the <Blood of Maahes>, the Slaughterer’s Set had potential as long as he used a fitting material. The blades, however, were only good for Mike who wielded the god’s divine skills. It would be hard to find someone else with a good fit to such a pair of blades.

“Congratulations on leveling up!” Sivri congratulated him on the rise of his skills.

“Thanks, Sivri,” he said with a smile.

The quest had also updated, now showing Slaughterer's Set and the Slaughter Blades were completed and all that was left was handing over the items. Seth was looking forward to the quest rewards, but maybe the biggest gain of this quest was the rise in skill levels. It had been so long, that the rise came completely unexpected. With level 2 of master tier <Enchantment> he had unlocked another badge of basic Olympian Enchantments.

The ones he had gotten after becoming a master were different and fewer than before, but they came with a big advantage. While the others came as a blessing through the power of a deity or a god and were unique, these ones seemed to be enchantments created by Hephaestus himself. As long he used <Olympian Silver> or souls, there was no restriction to the number of items he could enchant with them.

On level one he had gotten basic stuff like Olympian Sharpness or Durability. The next row of enchantments was “minor” Olympian attribute improvements like “Minor Olympian Strength”. This list included all attributes and apparently raised the attribute by 100 points. They were the master-level enchantments he had been looking for all this time. Although they came with the restrictions of Olympian enchantments.

“Will you set off right away?” Sivri asked, seeing him release his focus from the system windows.

“Hmm, no. I promised Fin and the others to stay for another day. I will bring Mike his stuff the day after tomorrow,” he said. Ponderingly he looked at Sivri. The golden dwarf didn’t show a change in expression, but that itself was a sign.

“Would you like to stay at the workshop and do something in the meantime?” the blacksmith asked her. She had shared her sentiment, that spending time with many people was hard on her, but she seemed always very content doing her craft. As expected, the goldsmith nodded, barely suppressing a smile.

“Then how about this: I will smelt down the low-quality <Stom Ore> that wasn’t blessed by Maahes and you see if you can make some interesting jewelry with it and the remaining materials?”

“That sounds interesting!” the dwarf agreed.

It didn’t take long for him to refine the remaining back of <Storm ore> he had gotten from Mike. There was a reason, this was called the low-quality ore. With the furnace being able to change size, he was able to refine the remaining sacks in one go. After refining the material, barely a fifth of the original weight turned into a material called <Tempest Bronze>.

The remaining stuff was slag. From the twenty bags of low-grade ore, he got about as much refined metal as from the one bag of high-grade ore.

“Here, you can use them however you like I will go look for the others then,” he said, presenting the bars of <Tempest Bronze> to her.

“Thank you! Have fun!” he waved after him as he left the room.

After stepping out, Seth remembered that he probably should call Mike about the finished item. So he did.

“You already finished?” the other's voice came from the orb.

“Yes, I will bring it to you the day after tomorrow. Let's meet at the System Church.”

“I will be there.”

…

--- a day later---

“So the guys we are looking for aren't cultivators this time?” Seth asked again. Since he wanted to spend time with them, he followed the others on their patrolling.

“Yeah, apparently they are a group of Thieves that were stealing from Cultivators,” Ray reiterated.

Unlike players with their inventory, most cultivators were easy targets for the thieves and their almost magical skills in stealing.

“How are you sure it was them?”

“We aren't. We are just going to talk with them.”

Whether it was the otherworlders or the cultivators, both were a source of trouble. While the people from the Pathworks were quite well-behaved inside of Little Gamma, it seemed that there were a slightly bigger problem in the Pythian Village.

Probably because only people with recommendations were allowed to enter the main city, while anyone was able to Enter the Pythian Village if they came through the land route. After all, Delta did not police who was able to enter or leave from there, so these more problematic people willing to join the games or trying to gain something here came from there.

Apart from criminals and adventurers, there were also visitors and audience for the games. Begrudgingly, Seth also had to accept that there were various religious organization trying to gain a footing in the less organized Pythian Village. They were the only people whose money didn't interest Seth, though they had to tolerate them because of their advertisements. Anyone was welcome, a motto he came to regret a little.

But it was not all bad, the Pythian Village was thriving, with many exotic merchants and traders setting up shops and stalls to sell their wares to the prospective participants and audience. Just like there were bars and restaurants in the style of the Voraciosu Cloud Continent, there were also simple bars, pubs, and inns Seth knew from the territories under the Chrona Empire.

Now, the group was entering one of those inns. Apparently, the suspects were supposed to live here-

“You thieving little cockroaches!” they heard from inside as a body came flying through the door and slid across the street.

“I guess we are in the right place?” the bard commented.