Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

After some back and forth they had finally come to the decision to send an advance party of the freshly made golems. They were golems specialized in defense and would be able to buy time for them.

Seth demanded the time because he wanted to prepare for this attack thoroughly. It took about a day to travel to the vicinity of Mount Agra using the subterranean maintenance tunnel that led to the mana gathering formation.

The volunteers were scheduled to set off half a day later after the blacksmiths polished up on their equipment. The Lords and the rest of the field teams would also follow, but before that Seth wanted to at least finish Lydia's mace and Jonah's Mask before they all set off.

To save time, Seth immediately started on them. Although he had tried to get out of the habit of using the improved crafting speed of his crafting station, he didn't really have a choice at this moment.

Given the materials he had left, the decision to make the mace from the marrow and the siddar wood was obvious. This way the weapon would benefit from his <Composer of Fusion>.

As the metal started glowing red hot, a savage tune filled the workshop. It wasn't melodious or enticing. It was dissonant and whipping, making the listener's heart race, and filling the body with energy that had to be released.

The hammer strikes that shaped the metal, perfectly fit the weird music, as Seth performed the Molag Ballad. His veins bulged as he worked the metal with unfounded wrath. They were the emotions received through the connection of <Channeling>.

What Seth felt was simply an infinite sea of wrath, thirsting for destruction. The dark runes that left his lips were filled with this desire. Sinking into the blessed copper, they granted blunt blow greater power in addition to armor penetration and armor breaking.

Most of the chunk of marrow left was turned into a heavy, cylindrical head for the mace. This material wasn't fit for something elaborate like a morning star or a flanged mace. This had similar reasons as to why it fit as the belly of the bow.

When met if force or something very hard flanges or spikes made from the marrow would absorb some of the force and bounce back. This was why the head needed to be massive, like a ball or metal cap.

Now, when it came to the shape... it was not the time for jokes, but Seth had already made the blueprints some time ago after assessing the material's properties. Despite the serious situation, it was quicker to go through with it.

For the mace, he was rather inspired by the shape of a truncheon or rather a... bat. The batting tip was made from solid marrow, which would then make a smooth transition into the long and sturdy wooden handle.

At no point did Seth stop singing or hammering. Once this cap for the truncheon was finished, Seth grabbed the wood. This time he didn't have to be too careful with the grain of the wood, as it was mostly about the powers it held.

The blacksmith took the leftovers of the siddar tree he was given and forged them together into one piece. On top of the demonic powers ceaselessly infusing into the wood as Seth melded the pieces together using Charon's Obol and <Energy Manipulation 3>, he also used <Reinforcement> to strengthen the wood.

His song only stopped after the pieces had turned into the rough shape of the bat handle. From this point on, he refined the handle with his <Carpentry> skills he learned from Bess. He use the cap as a template and carved the end of the wooden piece into a socket for the cap.

When both fit together, Seth drilled, or rather burned a hole through the center of the wood, fitting the hole he had prepared in the mace head. Through this hole, he threaded a pole he had prepared early, also forged from a piece of marrow.

Peening it over at the head and the bottom of the truncheon firmly married the two pieces together with a mechanical bond. This way he also strengthened the wood further. Of course, he didn't stop there. The last step was welding the wood and metal with careful hammer taps and a controlled flow of magic power.

With this, he had a roughly one-meter-long bat with the end being about 20 cm of massive metal. This was already a beast, but it was far from finished. The next step was engraving the enchantment.

Seth had specifically gotten this enchantment using his personal auction interface. This was the first enchantment he had gotten in his hands that required him to be a master. As one would expect from something called Weight Enchantment.

Weight enchantment didn't sound like anything special, when one new negative effects like Burden, that could increase the perceived weight of an opponent, slowing them. But this was slightly different, as it goes both ways.

Its effects sounded relatively simple. For example, the wielder of the weapon enchanted with this would be able to control the weight of said weapon through the amount of magic power they infused into it. The more magic was infused the greater the effects.

As great and simple as it sounded, the enchantment also had its drawbacks. For one, the difficulty of engraving it was incredible. So much so that even a master was not guaranteed to succeed. Seth had practiced it several times when he got it, before he was confident enough to really use it for the bat.

The other reason was its efficiency. To make a big difference in combat one needed to infuse a massive amount of magic to temporarily increase or lighten a weapon. In general, it was only used on incredibly heavy, or light weapons to ease their usage.

However, Seth was thinking of the typical weight-changing sword he knew from the media. Well, a weight-changing mace. The way to accomplish this was simple: Soul infusion. Lydia wouldn't need a lot of mana if the mana was already built into the weapon.

With that in mind, he started engraving the incredibly complicated magic circuit, using the help of the system guidance and his enchantment table. He couldn't afford mistakes. Sweat was flowing down his body, but his hands were absolutely still, and his eyes were locked in a concentrated gaze.

<Absolute Focus> and <Craftsman's Precision>, the skill given to him by his Radiant Forgeright glove were brought to their limits as he drove the engraving tool through <Wepwawet's Marrow>. He only allowed his hands to shake, when he finally relaxed, after he successfully finished the enchantment.

The blacksmith took a deep breath as he looked down at the bat on the table. He was satisfied with it the way it was. Now he was only missing one thing to finish the weapon. A soul. Although he had made big plans, he didn't have a fitting soul here and had not yet had the time to get one from Tano'Mol.

Since the actual weapon was done now, Seth felt ready to give the demon a visit and see if he had a fitting soul. If he really didn't he would have to use some of the refined ones without any special traits or powers.

With that in mind, Seth quickly took a shower in the workshop, wrote a short note that he was out, and used the tower to teleport to Delta's System Church. Wearing the helm of Hades as he crossed the Soul-cleansing membrane, the invisible blacksmith quickly ran towards the demon district.

…contemporary romance

A weird cloaked figure entered the lobby of Minas Mar's embassy and came before the counter.

"How may I help you? Do you wish to apply for immigration? Or maybe join Minas Mar?" the clerk asked friendly.

Even though the other looked suspicious, he was not the least bit afraid. The whole lobby was secured by layers and layers of enchantments that would stop any kind of attack on her. Also, people were usually checked with appraisal skills before being allowed entry.

"I came with an important message for Seth Smith."

"A message for the Tower Master? The Tower Master is currently occupied. If it isn't urgent you can leave it here and it will be given to him later."

"it is -very- important." the figure emphasized very. "I'm sure he is willing to meet me if you tell him that the message is from an old acquaintance of his."

She sighed. There were these kinds of people from time to time. People thought their matter was the most important in the world.

"Who am I to say is the message from?" she asked with a sigh.

"Mark Baker."

done.co