Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1465. Tower Relief

With the Helmet done, Seth only had to follow the blueprint for the remainder of the armor pieces. Since Rún took care of the enchanting, Seth was able to finish the Demon Dragon Vambraces and the Demon Dragon Spaulders on the second day.

For Cade, he had made Vambraces instead of gauntlets for two major reasons. A magician often needed their hands to be able to move freely when casting spells. Gauntlets could get in the way of that.

The other was her fighting style. Although the rakshasi had looted a legendary spear in Y-City, her original fighting style was based on her poisonous claws, which could even harm souls. To allow their free usage, he decided against gauntlets or gloves.

For the shoulder armor, Seth had chosen the spoulder to retain her mobility. The smaller shoulder armor could also be worn under a robe or cloak, like the ones he made for Monique. Since Cade was also a caster, maybe she wanted to wear something like a robe on top of the armor.

On the third day, a tailor from Nädelʼs workshop brought him a finished pair of boots from the master tailor. With them, Seth was able to armor the boots and forge connecting cuisses. Within three days, he was almost done with the forging of the armor pieces.

Apart from finishing armor pieces, the blacksmith also got some news. The advance team had set up the System Church at the foot of the Gate Guardian Tree, allowing workers, survivors, and people of the first wave to instantly travel to the border of their world and back.

Unexpectedly, they had to limit the usage of the teleport, as the distance used an exponential amount of power. To keep other teleport functions running, they had to restrict the ultra-long-range travel and think twice before activating it.

However, Seth was not worried. The great sorceress had returned from whatever she was doing on her own. He heard that AlʼZalsar approached Leana with a new project to fix this issue. Minas Mar was currently operating five mana collection formations. This was more than enough for regular operation, even a siege, but the teleport business put a strain on it.

The legendary sorceress intended to build a couple more around Delta. He didnʼt hear all the details, but apparently, she would build a central power hub not connected to Minas Mar directly, but controlled by the tower. This would be exclusive for travel, and it no longer relied on the Towerʼs energy source.

On the fourth day, today, Seth used the last remaining Sky Dragon Heart Scales to forge the cuirass. It was the only piece with damage reflection, for safety reasons. Although this was not the first Sky Dragon Set, it was the first that was actually 100% specialized for a magic user. All other pieces had received the Ballad of Harut and Marut, together with a collection of Rúnʼs enchantments.

With practiced swings of the hammer and the ballad well practiced, the cuirass was finished by lunchtime. Before going for his meal, he left the cuirass with the enchantment golem. By the time he returned from his break, Rún was already done.

The first part of the armor, the forging and enchantment, was done in just 4 days. The assembly line was working perfectly. But so far, only the helmet was a completely finished product. What the set was missing now were the souls.

Good thing the soul refinery was long done refining the load he had harvested from the dungeons around Delta. There were 5 massive epic souls waiting that held the essence of over one thousand beasts and people.

Seth began by bringing out the left vambrace and left spoulder, they would both share a souls. It was because Rún had come up with an unorthodox way to link items into sets, using his custom enchantments.

The left vambrace held the enchantment “Grasp of the Wicked”, which raised the power of curses and debuffs by 25% and lowered the cost of dark spells by 15%. The left spoulder, on the other hand, was enchanted with “Wicked Encroachment”, which raised the range of dark spells and curses by 20% and power by 15%.

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When worn together, they created the effect “Cursed Left”, which lowered the targetʼs resistance to curses and debuffs by 8% with every subsequent hit. This was their current power; now, Seth intended to add the soul enchantment on top.

The soul refined for the right arm was called . It unified all the skills and experiences concerning curses, primarily from the Vulturehags and the goblin shamans. Similar to the souls previously refined, it held a trait and several skills.

“Core of the Profane” was a trait that raised the magic power and mana recovery of the owner, with every active curse in the vicinity. It was 10% magic power for each curse the user had cast and 2,5 % for any curse active in a radius of 500 meters. Mana Recovery rose by 10% for any curse in the same area.

Apart from the trait, there were two pretty good passive skills. The first was , which raised casting time by 10%, but improved the duration of all status ailments caused by the user by 35%.

The second passive skill was , which lowered the resistance against mental effects and illusions of enemies in a radius of 25 meters. It fit part of Cadeʼs skill set like a glove, probably because the whole soul was specifically refined to be like that. It just showed that Sethʼs efforts bore fruit.

On top of that, Seth added two enchantments to the massive soul; he soul forged into perfect replicas of their soon-to-be bodies. For the first one, Seth used one of the perks that came with his recently leveled-up .

“Words are like spears, they pass right through you... A dark seed is sown, inside, all alone...A mark on your soul, beyond your control.”

Seth directly inscribed the lyrics of one of the first ballads he had learned, one he had learned from AlʼZalsar. He could feel the dark power flow through him through the aether. He immediately felt that the demonic power it harnessed was lower than when singing the ballad proper.

But it didnʼt matter. The important part was that the effect was still there. This was the ballad to add a random curse to every attack, or at least a chance to cast a random curse on attack. Seth was sure it would play well with the “Core of the Profane”, since the trait didnʼt specify the power of the curse; it was only about quantity.

It didnʼt end here. His increased skill level allowed his plan to add another relatively powerful enchantment to a single soul. Aside from the lyrics on the soul spoulder, Seth added the Sleep Paralysis circuit he had synthesized himself to the vambrace.

In addition to the random curse, any attack would have a 25% chance to cause Noise, Paralyze, Blind, or Fear, and a 5% chance to cause all at once. Happy with his work, he infused the soul into the vambrace and spaulder.

Checking the Item, he found that the only thing that had changed was an additional effect, with a confusing effect. Not because it was complicated to understand, but because Seth didnʼt quite know where it came from.

Suffering of the Strong raised the duration of a curse or status ailment, the higher the resistance of the target was. The increase was 1:1. A 10% resistance increased the duration by 10%. How useful this was depended on the situation, but it only increased the power further.

The spoulder looked almost the same, except for the differing enchantment and its own additional effect. The shoulder piece actually added the mythical trait of a curse back to the system magic. In folklore myth needed to be cast with a piece of the target to aim the curse.

With “Aimed Curse” of the spoulder, one didnʼt need to see or aim any of the curses they cast. They just needed to know their target, and the target had to be in range of the magic. Cade would be able to fire her curses blindly and hit by simply focusing on her opponent.

Cadeʼs left arm was already a mean piece of work, but it would become even more once the other pieces joined in.