Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1326: The Right Idea

With this many materials, technically a full dragon corpse, it would have been weird if Seth had not considered making a dragon golem and using the materials to rebuild the dragon, however, he had not done so for three distinct reasons.

The first was that this would have been disrespectful toward AlʼZalsar. These were the remnants of her nemesis, the result of a revenge 200 years in the making. There was no way the sorceress would be happy to watch the blacksmith reassemble her archenemy, even if it was just a puppet.

Secondly, he didnʼt even have the materials for it. Of course, he had the materials right here, but not the most important one to make a useful golem. A soul. The work of the past weeks, especially the Horsemen and hellion before them, had drained his stock.

Even Sandra Irvingʼs stock of souls she was managing for TanoʼMol had been drained for the most part. Even if there were still some objectively good souls, none of them caught the bardʼs fancy. He could only hope for TanoʼMol to return soon and rebuild some stock, or he would have to go get some himself.

Lastly, it was because the potential of golems was limited. Obviously, golems without a soul had no growth at all, but even the ones that were granted a soul by the blacksmith would show a varying limit, depending on the quality of their soul.

Even if they grew, they grew slowly. On top of that, golems with souls were like ordinary players; they all technically had a max level somewhere, and only a few of them had the potential to breach level 100.

As for becoming a legend? Unless something very special happened, there was very little chance. Although Sethʼs collection of legendary automatons may suggest otherwise, but how often was a golem blessed to become the reincarnation of a deity? Or inherit the powers of a myth to become legends.

Even Ceres, the only golem that became a legend of its own right, was the soul of a tyrannical storm elemental that had been trapped in a spear for centuries before it gained a semi-elemental body made of high-quality materials.

On the other hand, ori humas and players blessed by the System God had no natural barriers to overcome. They just needed to fulfill the requirements and level up to make their way to becoming a legend.

So, wasnʼt using the materials to help as many people as he trusted reach the legendary status the only logical decision? At least it was much better than wasting them on one, albeit really cool and strong, golem.
“..and that is why I assembled the Masters of Minas Mar to come up with the best possible armor set our skills can accomplish with these materials,” Seth ended his motivational speech toward the people assembled, as he presented the materials to them.

Tored, the dwarf he had learned from for a while, who had a higher skill level in and than Seth himself. Neeco Booz, who had attained the master-tier as a tailor. Sivri, who shared his skill levels, but had more experience as a goldsmith. Rùn, who also shared his skill, but was a genius in arcane enchantments. And of course, himself.

In addition to the five of them, there were Grant May, their rising enchanter, as well as the dwarves Hoen and Wedan, the two closest to becoming masters. They were mostly here for a learning experience, but also to offer a fresh perspective in case they had any ideas.

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Just creating set items was not easy, but creating ones with completely new materials was very hard. This was why Seth had invited people with higher and differing expertise from his own, intending to make the best possible set, despite his own lacking.

There was no arguing, all of them were craftsmen and couldnʼt wait to get their grubby hands all of the legendary and relic-rated materials. The next hour was spent purely inspecting and assessing the materials, before they even started to discuss what to make of them.

“I think everyone got a good look at the materials, and we have roughly the same understanding of them. So? Any ideas so far?”

With those innocent words, one of the most serious and hard-fought conversation in Minas Marʼs history began, involving 5 master craftsman sharing their opinions, ideas, and expertise. the blacksmith instantly realized, that he would be here for a while.

And he would be right. They spent almost two hours giving everyone to state their ideas and discuss them among each other. Of course, everyone spoke from the position of their own experience and expertise, but two main ideas were surfacing pretty early on and kept being discussed.

One was Sethʼs hope to make a cohesive set from the dragon materials. Something like the Lunatic Set, which was also a complete set of mage armor. Since the dragon material had similar aspects to , he thought they would be able to do something similar with this.

However, a drawback that came up during their talk was that the function of the Lunatic Set, which was to deflect and absorb the power of incoming spells, was going to be disrupted by the dragonʼs damage-negating property. The enchantment, as it was, would never be able to show its full potential.

Seth understood that, but he also wasnʼt happy with the other main idea, mostly supported by Wedan, Hoen, and Neeco. They argued, that since the materials were this powerful in their own right, it would be more productive to further enhance them with powerful enchantments individually, instead of trying to attune every piece of armor to each other.

“Itʼs actually not that hard to do both,” Tored finally spoke up, after listening to everyone. He had talked a little about enchantments and armor design that would fit the materials, but mostly listened to everyone for the latter part.

“Seth has the right idea, but you are exaggerating. Your own ambition is standing in your way. Since we are using the materials that share the same origin and powers, we can create the set effect with proper armor engineering, not wasting any of the enchantment places on the armor,” Tored suggested his own idea.

“Remind yourself of your Wyvern Armor. You didnʼt have your current knowledge, yet it easily gained a powerful set effect, because you used materials from the same origin, which empowered each other. This way we can give each piece powerful individual enchantments, and still harness the potential of a set effect to the fullest,” he glanced at Wedan and Hoen.

“ ..and you guys. I canʼt blame the tailor, but how can you call yourselves dwarven blacksmiths and try to drop any notion of a set effect, when itʼs practically presented to you?” he asked them grumpily.

At Toredʼs suggestion, Seth sat back speechless. The dwarf was right. One could say that he had been blinded by his own knowledge. he had been so intent on “forcefully” create a set through enchantments that he forgot that creating a set effect could be very simple. Especially, if he was able to tie them together with a soul.

He was shocked, but really glad that Tored was here. Not just the meeting, but that he had come to stay with him on Urth. It was clear that he still had a lot he could learn from him. After Tored spoke up, their discussion cleared up a lot, and they were finally able to make progress.

They were in the middle of a discussion on the design of the armor to ensure the pieces would harmonize and improve the set effect, with Tored leading the conversation, when Sethʼs communication orb started ringing. Who was calling him at this time of day?

“Seth, I have something to inform you about, but you have to promise not to get angry,” Leanaʼs strained voice spoke up. His good mood gone instantly. What had happened for Leana to start the conversation like that.

“Fine. What is it?” the bard gave an empty promise. Whether he got angry or not depended on what she was going to say.

“Jane and her expedition have been captured by the Light Church of Perrican. The inquisition accused them of heresy,” she reveled with a heavy voice.

“WHAT?”