Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.25!>

<Ding! New Class Skill has been unlocked. Check your Skill Window!>

<Ding! You have completed the quest -The Next Level 4- You have earned new System Rights.>

<Ding! You have received a follow-up quest -The Next Level 5-!>

Seth had just killed the last crawler and stood in front of the gate to the boss room when a flood of notification sounded. He first took a look at the system rights. His inventory had expanded by another 5 slots and the system window now had two new tabs called "Sets" and "Reputation".

The first was an option to store and register 3 premade item sets and use a quick-change to swap between them. For example, Seth could register his casual clothes he wore in the workshop, the travel attire, and this armor. Then he would not have to equip every item separately, but swap his whole attire in one go. It had a small time delay and could not be used in combat, but it was still a huge improvement in quality of life.

The second was a list of people and places he had met and visited. He had a good reputation in Ora or Zhiqe and intimacy with the Lord and his son for example. But there were a lot of names he had never heard before and he could not think of how he gained that intimacy off the top of his head.

The highest value he saw was 830 and the name beside it was Fin Bellsmiter. He could have guessed that. Slightly below was Mina with 650 and Marn with 600. The other party members ranged between 500 and 600.

There was also one negative value of 200 with the name Lyre beside it. He could not, by the love of God, remember who he offended to be hated.

Seth made the bold guess that 1000 was the maximum in both directions. He dared to say that his friendship with the party of very good and Fin was his best friend. If 0 was neutral and 500-600 was probably the value for really trustworthy friends... then was 1000 like...

Anyways. He shook his head to stop those thoughts. He got mixed feelings when he looked at his skill window and saw a new skill. It reminded him of his dark history. They had tried for a long time and even with Tored's teaching, Seth's skill in singing forging ballads was horrible. Even after learning those of the dwarfs, which sounded more like a deep chanting, the results were cursed weapons with random effects like:

< War hammer of Urge

Uncommon

Damage: 130

Durability:530

1. Targets will feel the sudden urge to pee

A steel war hammer made by an aspiring blacksmith. An Unknown entity was amused by the maker's attempt of singing. >

After trying for a few weeks Seth had finally given up. Getting this skill now made a mockery of his efforts!

<Voice of Orpheus lv.1, Passive

Grants you part of the power of Orpheus, the greatest poet who ever lived. A man you could soften even the heart of the ruler of the underworld with his song.

Effect:

+25% Success rate in music-related Skills of any kind >

It even had the perk to make him a good singer, even so, he had no talent or knowledge whatsoever. The knowledge was crammed into his head the moment he activated the skill. The lack of talent made it so he was only a good singer. Had someone with actual talent gotten this skill, they could have become a superstar!

The worst effect was, that his singing now sounded rather good and he already found himself subconsciously humming a tune... It felt a little inappropriate to hum a happy tune in front of the door of the boss room...

He looked at the big door. Should he take a look at the boss? The guild had especially warned him not to enter the boss room. His goal was already reached and he had more than enough poison sacks. He could simply leave now and-

Suddenly the gate shook.

"Hey! Are you coming in or not?! Do you know how annoying it is if someone just stands at your door without doing anything?" a roaring voice echoed from behind the door.

"I was just about to leave! Bye!"

"No! Please! Don't leave. Do you know how many people just leave after killing the critter! I'm so lonely. Being a dungeon boss is so boring!"

"Why don't they enter?"

"Because I'm too strong, of course. I'm the mighty Lich Al'Zalsa!"

"Oh great. I will leave now."

"No, no, no. Please stay. I swear I won't attack you if you enter. I need your help to leave his place."

"My help? How would I be able to help you?"

"I'm stuck here since that stupid dungeon core summoned me as the boss. I can feel from your aura that you should have an ability that can help me release these shackles."

"oh! Let me phrase this differently. Why should I help you? Releasing a powerful undead from o's shackles... it does not quite strike me as a pro-gamer move."

"A pro-what? Anyway, I'm sure I won't be in a state to do any harm if it works like I hope it will."

"Explain first."

The ability that had woken the Lich's interest was <Soul Capture>. It felt the passive attraction the skill used to automatically collect souls. It took the Lich half an hour before Seth agreed to its plan.

The plan was not too complicated. Seth entered the boss room and took a few minutes to get used to the skeleton in a lavish ornamental robe and more jewelry than a street rapper. Even Mr.D would feel silly with this much bling.

Definitely, the spiciest undead he had ever seen. Al did NOT pull the prank of slamming the door closed behind him. Not even as a joke. He also didn't attack him. He showed Seth the place where the Lich's phylactery was sealed by the dungeon core. Oddly enough it was a long, delicate pipe covered with colorful paintings of golden clouds and dragons. before the core could force Al to attack him it was <Soul Captures> time to shine.

The last level up was not specifically the ability to remove souls from the items he made but to remove souls from items in general. According to the Lich's guess, the phylactery was not an exception. As long as the Lich allowed it, that is.

Seth tried to capture the Lich's soul and was surprised by a massive wave of power slowly oozing out of the delicate pipe. It was not the size that surprised him, but the feeling of density the souls gave off. Fine cracks started to form on the ceramic pipe as the biggest part of the soul left the phylactery. The pipe turned to a cloud of fine glittery dust after Seth finally extracted the soul.

The skeletal figure of the Lich Al'Zalsa turned to dust leaving only a pile of dust.

<Ding! You have killed - Lich Al'Salza lv.180 - You have earned Experience.>

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.26!>

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.27!>

Level 180?! How had an lv.30 dungeon an lv.180 boss? Wasn't the experience a little too little with his kind of level difference? Was this because a Lich was technically nothing but its soul? This meant it would be almost worth 180 levels of experience! The Soul had to be at least epic then!

He had not leveled up for so long, that he had almost forgotten about the perks of leveling up, Fee SP! With the two level-ups, he had 5 now. He needed four to level up his appraisal skill and would still have one left. Just great! As close as he was to journeyman-rank now, this was the best option. Otherwise, he would be unable to appraise the materials he needed to level up quickly in this rank.

Now he could see the information of the soul.

<Soul of Al'Zalsa(Ex, Ego), Crafting Material, Epic+

The soul of the great sorceress Al'Zalsa who turned herself into a Lich after suffering grievous wounds in the battle with a dragon. After 200 years of training to take revenge Lich Al'Zalsa was suddenly pulled into the dungeon of a foreign dimension to work as a dungeon boss before she could ultimately slay her hated foe. >

"Al'Salza was a girl and she wanted to fight a dragon?" he mumbled surprised.

~How did you know? Hey, did you appraise my soul?! That's rude! You can't just stare at a woman's bare soul like this. Avoid your eyes already! ~

He heard a feminine voice in his head, similar to how Puffles spoke to him.

"... So this is what "Ego" meant."

Her soul was not bigger in original size than the wyvern's soul, but it was a lot denser and contained several times the power. A soul that still contained an ego from before, would he be able to make an ego item like this?

~ Hey, what's that glint in your eyes? Stop staring at me and loot my body, will ya? And don't forget to rob that damn dungeon core! ~

Loot her corpse? But all that was left was a pile of dust... Seth shrugged and squatted down to rummage through the pile of fine powder. He did not see the need to use loot and potentially lose something good.

He actually found three things in her remains.