Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.94!>

Seth didn't quite know how much time went by but he had crossed 28 bridges and met another two bosses by the time his level went up again. The dungeon also had gone through a peculiar change.

As Seth kept getting lower and lower on the bridges, a dim light started shining in the abyss below and the naming convention of the monsters also changes, with beings like "Cruel Dawn" and "Splendid Dawn" becoming the main cast of monsters attacking the bridges.

These monsters were based on the two bosses he had met previously. Cruel Dawn was the name of the first real boss he met. It was technically a version of the twilight creatures, but instead of a skin that looked pale with dark ashes rubbed on it, it was covered in grizzly scales with reptilian features distorting the face. It also had three snake-like tails that ended in scorpion stingers.

Despite its tankiness and size, the necessity to protect the bridges was a bigger hurdle to the pair of Imugi and Blacksmith, than being able to defeat the beast. Its massive size, several limbs, and its constant attempt to hang itself onto the bridge had made it an annoying boss fight, even for Seth.

At least the bridges also went through a change and started becoming more splendid. It was not just the fact that they were in much better condition than the derelict bridges in the beginning, but they started showing exquisite masonry works and signs of metal constructions the closer he came to the light below.

Had they not become better and more stable, it was questionable whether Seth and Tatzel could have defended them. At this point, the bridges were wide enough that even beings like the massive bosses and their elite copies could stand on the bridges.

The other boss he met was Splendid Dawn. Compared to the Cruel Dawn, it kept its humanoid features. Instead, it had two pairs of feathery, dark wings and a slight sheen of gold, as if gold powder was mixed into the ashes on its skin.

Albeit less than half the size of cruel dawn, it had the same defense with a much higher speed and stronger skills in melee combat. Objectively, the Splendid Dawn was the stronger boss, but subjectively, Speed wasn't something that worked on Seth.

He had to admit that the boss had a better weapon mastery, but that was all. The blacksmith was able to use his exotic mix of skills such as the short-range teleportation of <Scorpio Escape> and <Lame One's Walk> to keep the upper hand in the fight. The latter skill even grew to lv.9 afterward.

Since the bosses faced him on the wider bridges, instead of staying in the air, he finally got the chance to loot these two, making the souls he got from them the most noteworthy loot so far.

<Soul of Dawn ( Epic, Big) Crafting Material

The Soul of a Creature of Twilight. Had strong affinities with the dark element and some affinity with the light element. Trait: Beast of Dawn>

Aside from that, the materials he got from the bosses he faces so far were the wing leather of Twilight from the Stoic Twilight, Feathers of Twilight from the Splendid Dawn, and a good amount of reptilian Leather of Twilight from the Cruel Dawn.

After the two bosses, the swarms he faces were mostly made up of elite copies of Cruel and Splendid Dawn. The good part was that he also got their materials since many of them would land on the bridges to fight. The bad part was that their materials were barely worth looting.

While the boss materials were epic, the elite copies only dropped rare leathers, of which Minas Mar had more than enough. Seth still brought them along, even if they clattered his inventory. They had a lot of fresh blacksmith's at home, who would be happy to work with rare materials.

Seth felt a little like a mommy bird who collected fresh materials for its chicks at home to practice with. He inadvertently imagined Neill and the other new faces greedily grabbing the leather out of his hands, the moment he came to the workshops.

He had to smile at funny thoughts, that didn't really fit his current situation, as he was wandering deeper and deeper into the dungeon. However, the blacksmith actually felt refreshed since the increasing difficulty finally gave him a chance to explore all the skills that normally lay dormant.

For example, he started to instinctively use <Quick Cast> and add <Double Cast> from his Cloak of Hecate, when he fired magic from his Trignis Gloves. He also got used to not just adding the Draconic Titan Flame to the magic he cast but even using his <Pyrokinesis> to control the magic after it was cast.

His favorite magic to use in his situation was the Flame Lance. It was the strongest projectile spell in fire magic. Usually, it would penetrate the enemy and then explode. Using <Pyrokinesis> he gave the spell a little spin and instead of getting stuck and exploding on the first enemy, Seth controlled the lances to shoot down several targets before exploding.

This was also one of the first instances when he truly felt the effect of the Intelligence attribute. It didn't raise one education and made one incredibly smart, but it increased the player's memory and computational abilities. Seth was able to keep track and control a swarm of 20 different fire lances effectively while still fighting in melee combat.

He had never done or tried anything like that before since he was never in the need to try and do something like this. This strategy cost a lot of mental power to use the <Pyrokinesis> ability, but it saved mana in exchange since he didn't have to create a lance for every enemy.

Not that Seth needed to min-max his stats in this fight. The cost of casting a fire lance or the cost of controlling one were both negligible compared to his mana pool and mental power. It was simply exciting to find new ways to use his skills in combat, even if it was not necessarily the best way to approach the situation.

For example, Seth could have also used his <Dragon Might> and <Dragon Roar> to make them fall. He could have also shot them down with arrows or used the light attribute skills of Antares to do something. Seth had a lot of tricks up his sleeves, so he had ample things to explore further into the future.

For example, on the ground, he fought the Splendid Dawn copies using the Giant's Meteor Rod. He had learned how to wield a spear from Monique and his <Weapon Master(Expert)> had reached lv.9 and was close to a rank up.

Seth worked on weaving simple earth spells and the skills of his armor into his melee combat. With the passive improvements from the scorpion armor and the giant's rod, even simple spells like earth spike show a tremendous effect on the elite opponents.

Not as powerful as his fire magic, but enough to give him a clear edge in combat on the bridge. While the sky was lit up by seemingly conscious fire lances and Tatzel's fearsome magic, the bridge was a chaotic mass of earth spikes and sand storms. The blacksmith still tried to get the spell right to petrify enemies with a dust cloud and imitate the power of the Giant's Meteor Rod, without using the item's skill itself.

It was weird to say, but Seth actually enjoyed being able to get the chance and text out the variety of his skills. The bosses had been a little annoying, but he grew a liking to the group fights that kept increasing in difficulty. While the others struggled in the dungeons of the abyss, Seth actually got the chance to experiment with his skills as much as he liked.

Tatzel was not much different. Fully trusting Seth's protection, the Imugi went all out with his magic and started developing spell variations at a visible speed. The little genius did not have to depend on the system to chant and create magic spells. As a creature that was almost a dragon, magic came naturally to it.

They proceeded like this until they reached what was the 50th bridge if they counted correctly. This place seemed a little special. The light from below had grown very bright. The bridge they had reached was made of a stone looking like pure white marble, with exquisite carvings and masonry on the pillars to the sides and railings intricately forged from a bright silver metal.

The bosses in this dungeon were not spaced evenly, though they didn't know the reason for that, but this place just screamed boss arena. The moment they placed a foot on the pure marble, they heard the melodramatic flapping of wings as a pure white figure landed before them.

Her skin was white like milk and her eyes were made of gold. Wearing a silver crown on her head and with two fluffy white wings on her back, her majestic two-meter-tall figure looked down at them.

She wore a robe as white as her skin, looking like a statue hewn from the same stone as the bridge, however, her jiggle physics convinced Seth otherwise. A fine golden chain tied a sword sheath to her slim waist. The accompanying sword was in her hand.

"Intruder, what is your reason for coming here?" the being asked coldly, with a strict, feminine voice.