Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

He quite enjoyed waking up the next day as he was squeezed in between his two most favorite things in bed: The mattress and Mina. Other good news followed when Mary sent someone with a rough estimation of their loot- their compensation from the Nagelv guild.

They had managed to take pack most of the items, except for some potions that had already been used. In addition, there was a plethora of items, materials, and money the plunder- confiscated from the guild vault. Overall, the situation had ended in a net profit and an insight.

Seth spent the morning making another legendary firewall to install them in his two heads of administration, Mary and Jane. He didn't have the time now, but he decided to make weaker versions for all members of the administration later on.

Even with Tano'Mol's supply of souls, he didn't have the materials to make legendary anti-mind-control items for everyone that worked for Minas Mar. Not all of them needed the option to eradicate the enemy at any cost, not if it bore the risk for them and the items to be disintegrated.

With the second circlet, he was another step closer to his goal. Another 16 or 17 legendary items and he would have reached master in all his three main skills. It was time for the next step of the plan.

The reactivation of his previous plan to semi-mass produced legendary rings. It was time to create a legendary pipe. It slightly veered from his original plan, but he spent until evening making a pipe.

And what a mighty pipe it was. With the forging ballad of magic, praising the whoring around of Marut and Harut he had imbued fundamental properties to enhance magic into the material.

From this pipe, he was able to cut 10 workpieces and refine them into legendary rings for the casters of Minas Mar. The blacksmith used the sigil rings he made for the members as templates, giving all the rings a consistent design. After giving it some thought, he also used the same engravings on all of them, to make them the ultimate template of a magic ring.

Although they all started with the same base, Seth used his other skills in and special souls to customize them for each recipient. It was just a shame that he did not have enough Olympian Enchantments for all of them.

He was not embarrassed to admit, that he had hogged most of those that were fit to be used on accessories and armor. Those that were left were already reserved for those that fit them the best. It was one of the reasons why he rather wished to give everyone a new weapon, as he had a lot of divine enchantments that seemed to be more fitting for weapons.

There were a great many that had to do with the punishments in Tartaros for example and Seth was afraid to create a cursed item, as in one that would bring harm to the wearer. He still remembered his experiment with the frigid mail at the stronghold of the Theocracy.

This was why Seth decided to call upon his demonic patrons when it came to enchanting the souls for the rings. A soul fitting the wearer's disposition and a demonic enchantment to spice things up.

On the third day, after finishing the sixth of these rings, he finally got the notification that-

" +10 Intelligence, Unlocked Function: Formation Combination.>

A new function had opened, however, Seth's mind was currently hung up on the last notification. What was that about? He had never heard about such a thing... The flavor text of any item he ever made would change..? This seemed like a huge thing but Seth had no idea what he was to gain from this.

When he found that he wouldn't find any answer by staring at the title, he turned to look at this new function. Its name "Formation Combination" suggested it to be something like an automatic version of his previous ability to combine and simplify magic circuits to be able to enchant an item with more, or stronger, effects.

Technically the level of master would have also allowed Seth to create his own magic circuits, like magical Enchanters at this level would. However, Seth was not interested in stuffing his head with all the theoretical knowledge needed to create formations from the ground up.

He much preferred the power of the Formation Combination. The new function he found attached to his enchantment catalog felt a little like a gacha, but it only cost mana to use. How it worked was simple. Seth could choose up to four formations he already learned and the Formation Combination would attempt to combine them, with varying results.

While the blacksmith's manual combination and simplification using the skill and good old brainpower would result in a circuit that would be an amalgamation of the different parts, the result of Formation Combination could end up much simpler and have unforeseen synergistic effects between the combined parts.

It seemed like telling an AI to make a random combination that would somehow work. The description said that it could result in a circuit that is even better than the sum of its parts, which was the most interesting aspect of this new function.

He would always play with it when he had some downtime over the following days. Seth kept trying combinations of attribute circuits, without much success. Either the success rate was low, or they just were not made for each other.

Aside from the new function, the effects of the enchantments after becoming a master also rose by another 10-20% when compared to before.

With the ninth ring his almost leveled up, but another notification he had looked forward to came.

His intelligence had finally reached 200 points from the attribute points he gained through his title and the legendary items. Seth quite enjoyed being able to improve his attributes this way, especially since other methods became harder to use.

Links food would occasionally still give him a point, but it became a lot less since they lacked ingredients. This was not just Seth's problem, he had heard that it was common for people on high levels to stagnate, since level-ups were the only reliable way for most to improve their main attributes.

Sometimes Seth would lament his quick growth since he missed the best time to grow one's attributes with food and potions, which worked better on lower levels because it was harder to get ingredients to improve already high attributes. Potions with universal applicability like the one Alison made were extremely rare.

However, by making legendary items, Seth had a comfortable way to improve all his attributes across the board. Despite being very happy about it, the blacksmith was sure this wouldn't go on forever. He doubted the system would just give him power for free, so he dreaded the day when the notification wouldn't sound out.

Finally, with the tenth ring:

" +10 Dexterity, Unlocked Function: Punch>

Finally, he had reached the master tier in , too. If he was honest, he had been tired of making accessories over the past weeks and was glad that would now be able to concentrate on weapons and armor.

was the only one left that was not master tier. He had spent a little less than a week on the other two, which meant he now had 2 Weeks to become a master blacksmith and make the items for his friends before they set off to the Adventurer Guild's Holy Land.

He just sat down and put his tool away, when a sudden light emanated from his chest. The spot was hot and felt as if it was sucking energy from his body. It didn't hurt, on the contrary, he felt good and came with a sense of euphoria.

Seth quickly realized what was happening. This was Punch, the new function. It was not the punch as in hitting people, though. Slowly, a golden stamp exited from his chest. A rectangular, roughly 10cm long stick with a small negative of a seal at the tip.

This was his seal, his stamp. The function that was unlocked with the master level was the same as the blacksmith's mark he would get when he became a master blacksmith. Using this stamp created by the system he could mark his finished items, making them recognizable for anyone with eyes, even those without an appraisal skill.

He immediately tested it, by punching the ring he had just finished. After punching it, he found that the punch had another effect. He quickly punched the others to ascertain that the punch in fact had a reinforcing effect on the rings and their durability slightly increased.

The punch that now decorated all the rings looked like a tiny hammer surrounded by a halo of flames. The seal chosen by the system didn't strike him as the coolest possible signature, but he somehow felt connected with it. He was sure it would grow on him.