Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth used the acquired materials wisely and finished and the equipment for the gourmet hunter and what he himself was still missing. He used most of the bat leather for Link's armor. It was a quite traditional design of a hardened leader armor that still offered a big range of movement.

Seth did not really like leatherworking. His skills made the crafting process not much faster, which meant it took much longer than forging. As he was stitching, boiling, and waxing the armor and its different parts, his thoughts wandered.

Yesterday, he had seen once again that most technology had vanished. In this silent moment, he started thing of the why. Because in Alpha his phone and kitchen appliances and really everything else had worked just fine after the apocalypse, even the motorbike he had found had no trouble running.

Maybe he was just paranoid, but he could not avoid the question that maybe there was some catastrophe still waiting to happen. Compared to other districts he had heard Y-City was really quiet, except for the invasion from the ocean.

Although he heard that Beta and Delta had the same problem, this did not mean anything. Maybe all three districts would suddenly explode or something? His thought did not really get anywhere while he sat there and crafted the armor, but he decided to ask Samuel when he got the chance.

Whatever it was, Seth was sure Samuel would also have a book like Simon, that contained the worst scenarios their world had to offer and how to avoid them.

His wandering thoughts stopped when he heard the notification that he had finished the items.

He had finished Link's leather armor and boots for himself. The armor included cuirass, greaves, bracers, and pauldrons. It was a shame that the ability of Charon's Obolus and <Energy Circulation 2> could not be used to harden leather. At least he could use <Reinforcement>, the skill he had gotten after <Energy Circulation> upgraded, to increase the armor performance and durability a little.

Seth sighed, this was as far as his ability in leatherworking went, there was a reason why there were classes that specialized in this kind of work. The finished armor was of a dark gray color with a tint of violet. The rare item increased movement speed and the affinity with the wind element thanks to the material properties of the leather.

Seth infused the cuirass with a medium-sized soul that increased dexterity by 70 since it was the main attribute of a hunter and a cook. He used two small souls to infuse into the two bracers which increased agility and dexterity by 10 each.

It was nothing special in Seth's eyes, but it would be more than enough to serve the hunter for a long time. The most important for the glass canon would be his weapon.

For himself, Seth used the rest of the bat leather and some of the ape leather to make almost knee-high leather boots, which he armored with <Magic Steel>. The new material had opened up new possibilities. So he would replace his current boots before even using them once. He used the thick and sturdy ape leather for the soles and the softer batwing leather for the body and shaft.

Seth followed Al'Zalsa's advice when it came to the enchantment. She said there was a good chance to build upon the fact that the ape leather was originally used for skill activation. For the enchantment, he took a medium-sized monster soul and used <Spirit Forging> to turn it into a pair of boots similar to the one he had already finished.

<Ding! Skill: Spirit Forging lv.1 has become Spirit Forging lv.2!>

Seth was positively surprised. He had gotten used to the idea, that he would need to use SP to level his class skills. But he had actually managed to level <Spirit Forging>. This was a great relief, because it meant, that he could level this skill, as long as he kept grinding it.

He paused and immediately looked at the perk list, but lv.2 brought no interesting new perks. He returned to the boots. Under Al's guidance, he interweaved the complex enchantments of strength and <Tremor>.

"Tremor" was an enchantment that was barely within Seth's capabilities. He actually had to buy the enchantment scroll via the church for a hefty price. Well, he got a good discount because he claimed that he would use the enchantment for the batch of weapons for the next auction.

"Tremor" was the lesser version of "Earthquake". He was used by striking the earth with one's weapon which would create a shockwave that could disrupt the opponent's movement, skill, or chanting. It was already very complex on its own, but now he had to interweave it with the more complex version of the strength enchantment.

Without the 200-year-old sorceress giving him instructions, he might have failed miserably. His clothes were damp and sweat was running off his face when he finally heard the completion notification and-

<Ding! Skill: Enchantment (Journeyman) lv.1 has become Enchantment (Journeyman) lv.2!>

-his skill level went up. Lately, he had not paid much attention to his proficiency, since he was prepared to level insanely slow after reaching journeyman rank. But it was true, that he had actually managed to make quite a few epic items recently which brought his <Blacksmithing> close to a level up, too.

Only <Goldsmith> had barely any proficiency yet. But that was okay, it had only upgraded recently. Seth took a deep breath and stood up; taking a small break to eat and drink. All that was left was to infuse the soul boots into the actual item and see whether Al's plan would come to fruition.

A knock on the door interrupted his break.

"Come in!" he called. Drinking from a water bottle in large gulps he saw a clerk enter the room.

"Sir Smith, I'm here to inform you that the diviner, you had asked for, has arrived today," he said with a smile and his hands folded behind his back; waiting for Seth to dismiss him.

"Isn't it early? Wasn't the diviner supposed to come tomorrow?" or had Seth unwittingly lost his sense of time during crafting?

"Yes. The diviner supposedly finished his previous business earlier than expected and was able to arrive sooner. Do you wish to meet the person immediately, Sir?"

Seth thought for a moment. He didn't really know that person's situation. He just arrived here, maybe a break was needed?

"Did Samuel say anything? Or the diviner?"

"Master Samuel offered to have a meeting over dinner in the evening, Sir"

"That's a good idea. Please notify me again in an hour."

With that, the clerk left and Seth could get back to his boots. Carefully he infused the soul boots and proceeded to dunk the pair into the water of Styx. The outcome was better than Seth had expected, maybe even better than what he had originally planned to do with the ox hide. Seeing the effect, Seth kept infusing small souls until there was no more improvement.

<Disruptor Boots

Epic

Phys. Def: 530

Mag. Def: 256

Durability: 2800

1.+15% Affinity to Earth-Element

2.+20% Affinity to Wind-Element

3. +10% Movement Speed

4. +25% Resistance to negative status effects (Mind)

5. 15% of the received damage will be reflected to the attacker.

6. Creates Active Skill: Disruptor Wave

A pair of boots that pushed the limits of the maker's abilities. An epic item created by Journeyman Smith and imbued with an array of abilities thanks to special treatment.>

Active Skill: Disruptor Wave, No Cost, Cooldown: 120s

Stomping will erupt in a shockwave disrupting movements, attacks, or chants and causing a wave of small pebbles to shoot out, causing small physical damage to the targets. Pebbles have a chance of 8% to cause mental disruption on hit (Effects: Stun/Confusion)

The skill was the synergy between the Groundape's original skill "Shockwave" and the enchantments of tremor and increased strength that had created a whole new effect. It really seemed like a great AOE skill. The only problem Seth saw was that it did not differentiate between allies and enemies.

There were no concerns as long as he was alone or in a duel, otherwise, it would probably be ok as long as he had a distance to Alison and Link, Tekar should be able to easily withstand the skill's effects.

Seth was pulled out of his thought when the clerk knocked on his door once again. It was time to meet the diviner.