Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth, unaware that he had somewhat helped Leana, returned to his workshop the next morning. Today he was going to make an item for Archer, the Archer, and James, the warrior that had joined Team 3.

Funny enough, Archer, the Archer did not ask for a bow. Archer wanted a quiver he could wear at his hip and not just any quiver.

"Would it be possible to have a quiver that generates different kinds of arrows?" he had asked hesitantly with sparkling eyes.

It came out, Archer was actually a big fan of superheroes like Eagleeye and Teal Arrow that used different kinds of arrowheads to deal with situations. The problem for Seth was that he didn't have any enchantment for that.

There were enchantments of various different elements and effects in his repertoire, but they only worked by being directly used on an item. None of the enchantments he knew could imbue effects on other items.

He was sure this would have been child's play to Al'Zalsar or any other arcane enchanter on the same level as Seth, but the ones he could do always needed to be physically attached to the items they took influence on. They couldn't transfer their effects on blank items.

If only things were as easy as finding the soul of an enchanter and slapping that bad boy onto the quiver. But even that wouldn't work, as there was more to enchanting than just the skills. A soul trapped in an item alone, could not do it.

The blacksmith had mulled over this for a while before he finally realized that he was looking at things from the wrong direction. It wasn't his fault, because of how Archer had formulated his question.

A quiver that imbued ordinary arrows with effects was impossible for Seth. However, it didn't mean there wasn't a workaround. He couldn't make the quiver imbue things, but he could make the arrows absorb and mimic the power in their surroundings.

Demonic enchantments were big when it came to taking things and the forging ballad for this was not even a hard one. Seth had come across it because he had read through ballads for things other than weapons and armor at one point.

Items like Jonah's Hungry Coin which could store life force and mana, or Evee's armor imbued with unliving were ballads that were used in other crafting processes. The forging ballad Seth remembered was of similar nature.

It was a ballad that could imbue an item to take on the elemental powers of the materials close to it. The original use was to make laboratory containers. Containers that would mimic the properties of their contents would suffer less damage from magical reagents.

Seth could use this. If he made arrows using this forging ballad, they could absorb the properties of the powers present in the quiver. With this, he only needed a way to change the elemental power of the quiver. Again, he got his inspiration from a different place.

Ember's Flute. He could imitate the function to imbue the sound with different elemental power. Theoretically, he could engrave several enchantments and depending on which formation was supplied with mana, make it possible to have the power of the quiver and that of the arrows switch between enchantments.

Up to now, this quiver may really be the most technical of the item Seth planned to make, aside from the golems, as there were some things to keep in mind.

The forging itself was not overly complicated, the quiver was technically just a tube with a rim, made from legendary and could hold up to 25 Arrows. It had a grid with 25 slots that formed a little compartment at its bottom, separating arrowheads and shafts.

For the forging ballad, the bard used the ballad of random curses when forging the tube and the grid. This way all arrows would come imbued with a random curse.

Then he started enchanting the parts. On the quiver itself, he etched the same poem of Leraje's Archery that he used on his own pauldrons. On the grid, he engraved the complex formations for fire, lightning, and paralyze.

It would have been cool if he could have made it in a way that Archer would end up being able to shoot arrows of fire and ice, but as the opposite of fire, the two circuits were too opposed to each other. Lightning, fire, and paralysis on the other hand worked well together and the switch between them would be easier for the arrows. The random curse effects would not get in their way either.

With the physical parts done, the next step was the soul. At first, Seth had been worried about the insertion of a soul. After all, if he inserted a soul in the grid all enchantment would be constantly active. This was a problem because of the capacity of the absorption ballad and the

He had even planned to have the grid and quiver to be separate from each other. He would not have infused the soul into the grid part and the user would have been able to supply mana to the desired enchantment via a small tongue that ran along the whole quiver down to the grid.

But then he realized, that his original thought of an enchanter's soul was not THAT stupid. With his current blueprint, it would be easy for any ego soul to control the enchantments of the grid. Looking at the soul, he couldn't help but smile.

…

2 Weeks Prior

"Tower master, do I really have to...?"

"I took some time out of my busy schedule and you are the one trying to back out? Come with me, if you want your multi-function quiver."

The archer was suspiciously ogling the unnatural darkness of the Shade Territory. Seth had not expected the man to be so timid. It was already hard to have him follow into the demon district, and now he was acting up as they were about the enter the darkness of the shades.

"F-Fine..," he gave in with some sweat on his forehead and followed Seth into the darkness.

Soon they came to the inconspicuous door of a warehouse where Seth opened the man's eyes as they entered the shop that looked like a witch doctor's hut. It was Tano'Mol's shop, still filled with all the glowing balls and colorful souls floating in them.

"Seth, you are back again! And you brought another guest?" the goat greeted the two men.

Although Archer did his best to keep his serious facade, it was pretty clear that he had a hard time dealing with the demonic environment and the talking goat. Seth couldn't help but question how someone could be like that, after spending three years in the apocalyptic Urth.

"Hello, Tano. I need an ego soul. One with magic talents would be best."

"Again? You already emptied by cabinet upstairs. I don't have a lot of ego souls left..."

"You are saying that as if I don't pay for the stuff I buy. Come on, it's not for me this time. I need a soul that takes a liking to this guy," he said and pointed with his thumb at Archer, who was nervously inspecting the weird orbs.

"Can he use telepathy?" Tano asked.

Seth was stumped at the time. He had actually forgotten, that one needed telepathy to communicate with souls. The blacksmith himself also didn't possess the skill originally but could use it thanks to his items.

"I see you didn't think of that. Don't worry, I have some cheap rings for such occasions." the goat calmed him down and threw an ugly ring at Archer, who fumbled and barely managed to catch in his surprise.

"Wear it and follow us."

After saying that, the goat took the lead to the second floor. There were already a few new additions to the souls in the cabinet, however, they didn't go toward the cabinet.

"You look like a really pure-hearted fellow, unlike your boss over there..."

"Hey!" "No offense." "Offense taken, but continue."

"Well, since you seem like a good guy, I show you some of the less fortunate souls. Maybe you can find one that fits the criteria of your boss."

They passed a doorway that was originally hidden by a curtain and entered a new room. Inside was a tank that was covered in demonic runes and enchantments. Inside the tank floated many souls together, like fish in an aquarium.

"Put your hand with the ring here and try talking to them. If you can convince one of them to come along with you, I will let you take it free of charge."

Seth and Archer looked at the demon. While Archer was hesitant, Seth was suspicious to why the demon was handing out freebies. After an encouraging nod from both, the demon and his Tower Master, the archer stepped to the tank and put his hand on the glass.

In the ensuing silence as Archer spoke to the souls, Seth approached Mol.

"Be honest with me, what is this place? You didn't show it to me before."

"... Well, you could call it a nursery? These are the souls of children and the innocent that were sacrificed in rituals. Don't look at me like this, it's not like I did this to them. I just collected them to give them a better place to exist.

Unlike the ones in the cabinet outside, these people are not trapped in this state because of some lingering resentment or attachment. The lingering magic of the rituals makes it impossible for them to move on to any kind of afterlife.

Even if I found a saint or a priest that could be able to purify them, they are all from different dimensions with different beliefs. Not all of them would agree to go to whatever afterlife may be connected with that god."

The goat suddenly gave a long explanation, but it helped the blacksmith understand. Also, he was slightly peeved, he even understood why he didn't show these poor unfortunate souls to a man who simply wanted to turn them into potential allies or items.

They had waited silently for a long time before Archer finally stepped back from the tank.

"It's her," he said with a blush. Why was he looking like he had just found a potential love interest on a dating app...?