Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 133. Crawling Out Of The Dungeon

In the pile of dust, he found two rings and a bone fragment. He could only appraise one of the rings and the bone. The other ring was probably out of his appraisal range.

”Almost became a legend, almost slew a dragon. What with all the almosts...” Seth mumbled.

~ Itʼs this dungeonʼs fault! I was about to fulfill my revenge and kill that hateful dragon. I was casting a spell to finish that guy off and a teleportation formation suddenly appeared around me and I was summoned here! ~

”Oh, did I speak out loud? Sorry... But how can an lv.30 dungeon summon a boss at your level?” Seth could not hold back his curiosity.

~… It was lucky! That stinky dungeon master drew gachas and randomly summoned me! If the dungeon had not automatically sealed me, I would have long taken this place apart! Do me a favor and punch the dungeon master for me. ~

Now that she mentioned it. A dungeon boss and the master were not necessarily the same person. So where was this dungeon master? Seth could only see beyond the boss room.

~ Heʼs hiding behind that pillar over there! Go get him! ~

The dungeon master was a small humanoid demon, an imp? It had run away and hidden the moment Sethʼs armor took effect. It was an absolute weakling.

Seth went with calling it an imp. It was unable to communicate, but it seemed very afraid.

”Look at how pitiful it is, are you really telling me to hit it?”

~ Itʼs only afraid because it stands no chance! Do you know how often this thing humiliated me by abusing its authority as the dungeon master? Hit it, I say! Smite it! ~

Al actually shared some of her memories of the impʼs actions. She had to serve it and got kicked and spit on by the arrogant little shit without a way to even resist. Seth gave the creature a mighty kick that smashed it against the dungeon wall. It wouldnʼt turn into a prince from this, would it?

Then Seth used the great technique he had learned from Fin.

”Hey, you! Where is my reward, eh?” he poked the training swordʼs tip against the crystal core. With a tink, tink he continued.

”You wouldnʼt want me to crush you right? There is no one protecting you now, or do you think that wimp will stand up to protect you?”

The next moment a treasure chest appeared beside the dungeon core.

”Now, now, donʼt be so stingy. I defeated an lv.180 boss. Donʼt you think your life is worth a little more?” he could not just break the core without the guildʼs permission. But he could still threaten to do so. The next moment a second chest appeared beside the first. Core successfully mugged.

The contents of the chests added up to about 45 gold in gold silver and bronze coins. There were also some uncommon weapons, but nothing overwhelming. The only thing of slight interest was a thin silver bracelet.

It was simple, but Seth could appreciate not getting sick. Diseases were one of the most annoying details in many survival and role-playing games. Health was even more precious in reality. It was a shame this was a dungeon item, so he would not be able to scan and copy these effects.

”I guess, Iʼm done here.”

~ I can finally leave this cursed place! ~

Al stayed silent after he put the Lichʼs soul in his soul space. Seth appreciated this, he felt very nervous talking to a 200year old soul of a lich. Before reaching Ora, he used the new quick-change function to swap to his travel clothes. Back in Ora he visited the guild, completed the quest, and finally returned to Toredʼs shop. A lot of things had happened on this trip that way only supposed to test his skills.

”How was it?” the dwarven master greeted him as he stepped into the smithy. The dwarf was currently sharpening a short sword.

Seth thought about how he had harvested the soul of a being that could probably wipe out Ora and decided to stay silent about that. He told Tored about the effects of the sword burning through the bugs like a hot knife through butter.

”You leveled up, right? Why donʼt you put some points into Willpower? Maybe that will help with your headaches.” Tored commented casually.

O.O

He had completely forgotten to distribute his free attribute points. It had been so long since he last leveled up. He had 32 now and decided to put half of them into WIL bringing it up to 55. He put 10 into agility and 5 into endurance. The last 2 increased his INT to 35.

He could easily feel the difference the increased willpower did when he started playing with a small blue flame. Now he felt like a mutant, just casually playing with a small flame in his hands. It felt really interesting.

”You done? Stop playing around, I already prepared your next tasks. Go get to work.”

When Seth got back to the crafting table and looked at the plans for the next item, he was supposed to make he suddenly remembered.

”Oh yeah, I also got a passive skill that will increase my chances with singing!”

Toredʼs hands halted and his face paled. They had really tried to teach Seth singing and it had the dwarven master a lot. He was not mentally ready to listen to Sethʼs ”singing” again. On the other hand, he was a respected and powerful dwarven master. How could he be afraid of his disciples singing?

His hand started grinding the sword again and he answered in a calm voice with a forced smile.

”t-Thatʼs great. Then we should test it out later!”

This was his burden to bear. He couldnʼt hinder his fosterlingʼs growth just because he was afraid to lose his reason. That didnʼt mean he couldnʼt buy some time to mentally prepare!

It was a week later; Sethʼs skills were slowly growing as he made the accessories and items Tored ordered him to make. and were closing in on lv. 4 and he also started creating different weapons under the masterʼs guidance making his grow, too.

”Today we will try out the new skill you mentioned.” The dwarf suddenly said, wearing a pair of ear protectors. Seth knew his singing was bad but did he really have to go this far?

Feeling a little hurt, Seth grabbed a piece of steel to test out the effect of the skill on using a forging ballad. He started chanting a dwarven ballad that was supposed to ask a low-level earth spirit for its blessing and strengthen the material. A throaty deep chanting filled the smithy and drilled through Toredʼs ear protectors as if they were not even there.

The master had to admit that the singing became a lot less nerve-wracking than before, but it still sounded very wrong and disharmonious. At this point, it was already clear this would end again in failure or a curse.

”Stop! Stop, halt! No more. Shut up, Seth!” a clear voice disrupted his work.

An illusory figure stood behind him. It was a tall blurry-faced woman with a loose, very revealing robe and a boatload of jewelry.

”This is the wrong approach. You completely lack any kind of talent to communicate with the spirits and your translation function is completely tearing up the words,” she said and waved her and dismissively.

”What do you mean- Wait who are you?” the dwarf stared and the ghost that had suddenly materialized in his smithy.

”Iʼm AlʼZalsa the spiciest sorceress of- Whatever. Shut up dwarf, Iʼm not talking to you.”

The dwarf suddenly made an awkward duck face. Toredʼs mouth was clamped shut and he could not open his lips, no matter how hard he tried. The Lichʼs souls that had not given any signs of life for the last week had suddenly projected an illusory figure beside him and ”offered advice”. She even told his master to shut up.

”Okay, then I will ask. What do you mean, I have no talent to communicate with the spirits? And what does this have to do with my translation function?”

She sighed.

”You wouldnʼt understand it if I tried to explain. So, letʼs save time and accept that there are translation errors, ok? But even then, it would still have a slight effect, if you had good compatibility with spirits. ”

”Does that mean that my singing is not even that bad?” hope was rising in his voice.

”What? No! Without that skill your singing would be horrible. ”

A metaphorical shattering could be heard as Al smashed his hopes with a sledgehammer.

”Does it mean that I really have to give up on forging ballads?”

She patted his shoulder.

”No. You just have to choose the songs better. Try this one.”

An illusory finger pointed at his forehead and knowledge started pouring into his brain. It was a new ballad in a completely foreign and archaic language.

”It has a similar effect to the one you just tried to use. It will help strengthen the weapon. Uurgh- Itʼs really hard to use magic without a medium for my soul. I will come back after some rest.”

With that, she simply vanished. Tored ripped open his mouth with a loud gasp.

”What was that?! ”

Seth was belatedly forced to explain what had happened in the dungeon.