Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1268: Feeling

“Do you think that is enough for the content of the cabinets and our little list?” the blacksmith asked with a knowing smile. Unlike before when she shrewdly haggled with Fin, Erkaʼs face had frozen only twitching here and there as she tried to control her expression.

Even for Seth, it was obvious what was going on inside her. She was unwilling. Unwilling to part with her collection of goods. unwilling to let this chance to have a legendary weapon go. it didnʼt matter that this was a cursed sword.

Just like Sethʼs helmet, there were ways to negate the negative effects and then it would be a tremendous weapon. There was even the option to find an enchanter to add this option to the weapon itself, or further strengthen it with additional effects.

it was a fact that this was a legendary ego weapon with the potential to be even stronger, which placed it among the better legendary artifacts out there. Even among legendary weapons, there were tiers depending on the effects and their usefulness, obviously. Seth had taken this into account when he offered the knife.

Even when the medicines in the cabinets were incredibly precious, their worth was only monetary. They could be produced, she could always get her hands on more of those. Maybe Erka could even make some of them herself? but the weapon Seth offered was an original piece that she would not see again.

If the bard judged her correctly based on the shop she was running, her collectorʼs instinct wouldnʼt be able to resist it, as long as his demand stayed within boundaries, and his current one just scratched that limit, leaving Erka in her current state.

She didnʼt say anything, but gave him a deadly stare, as if she tried to shoot a laser beam through his skull. Her lips were pressed together, becoming a thin white line. Seth simply looked at her as he waited for her to end the awkward silence.

“H-How about 2/3 of the medicines and your list?” she suggested with a strained smile. She looked like she was about to cry tears of blood. But it did not affect Seth.

“Iʼm not haggling with you. This is a take it or leave it deal, “ the bard answered mercilessly and a nuance of was swinging in his voice to make sure she got the message. This was a legendary item, something that would usually end up as a national treasure in smaller kingdoms.

“T-Three fourths and the list?” she tried raising her offer a little, despite knowing that the blacksmith was not going to haggle with her. Seth just shook his head coldly.
“Boy, you are really breaking my balls over here...” she pleaded.

“I donʼt care about your bodily defects. You know the offer, make your decision,” Seth said slowly, leaning over the counter. For a moment she was vibrating, as if she was about to explode, but suddenly all tension left her with a big sigh.

“You are such a hard nut to crack. Fine, you won,” she said absolutely relaxed. It had all just been a big act to try and make him lower the price. Even if she was agitated, Erka had completely exaggerated her reaction to seem more pitiful. Too bad for her, that didnʼt work on Seth.

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“Wait here for a moment, I will retrieve your items,” she said and vanished with their list through a door in the back.

“Itʼs still a legendary weapon. Are you sure about this?” Mina asked, looking at the sinister knife Seth had placed on the counter. He knew how she felt. Just looking at it had his skin crawling. That was the power of Orias passively emanating from the blade.

“Itʼs a weapon with limited potential, even if someone manages to overcome its drawbacks,” the blacksmith answered, looking at the knife. As mentioned, there were ways to counter the negative effects, but it would also mean giving up on even better options.

if there was someone who had a skill or another item like Seth, that could block the effects, then the knife would become a great asset, if improved further. On another, more gruesome note, Seth suspected that further enchantments were not the only way the knife could improve.

The “voracious ego” was a factor that acted as a fail-safe for the mental corruption, but the ego itself was not kept in check by anything. The bard couldnʼt imagine what would happen to the basic ego if it kept absorbing the minds of its wielders. maybe it would even develop skills of its own and become an independent entity?

However, Seth was not the one, that would sacrifice people to the knife, to see where that was going. Maybe it was best to leave this kind of weapon to Erka, who would most likely put it on a pedestal somewhere, not letting anyone touch, or even see it for a long time. If trading it here led to the knife being sealed as a decorative piece in this shop, maybe that was the best outcome.

“Here we go! I put everything in here,” Erka appeared again a few moments later. She stepped to the counter and placed a small ring on it, opposite the dark knife. The Tower Master questioned it for a moment before he realized what was going on.

“A storage ring?” he asked a little surprised. He had seen some of the wealthier and more powerful cultivators use these in the past. Mast Mountain even had one that could store a living person, or so he heard.

“You know about it? That makes things easier. Until you three appeared, I started doubting whether I landed in a system world. Bunch of weirdos calling epic and relics “earth and heaven grade” items. But these rings they exchanged are quite neat, “Erka rambled a little about her previous customers.

“There were cultivators here?” Seth asked suspiciously. It was no big wonder that few high-level players would randomly appear in a tourist attraction like the White Scale Bazaar, but to think Cultivators above lv.80 were roaming in the streets of Spring City raised some questions.

“Is that what you call them here? There were a few. Four or five, i think,” she said with a shrug but did not elaborate further. “But enough gossip, letʼs get back to business. Check the contents,” she said and tapped on the ring.

Seth looked at her for a moment, before pulling out a second list, which had all the names of the medicines in the cabinet and the number of them written on it. Then he checked the ring by touching it and infusing his mental power into it.

By the courtesy of the system, the interaction with spatial rings had changed since the System partially assimilated the Voracious Cloud Continent. So after Seth infused his mental power, it opened an inventory window with the contents of the ring.

This worked a little differently from his own inventory, as it was literally just a list of everything that was crammed into the finite space of the storage ring. Checking the contents against his list of medicines and the list of items, Seth quickly confirmed that Erka had not tried to scam them. Everything they wanted was in the ring.

“Everything to your satisfaction?” the old shopkeeper asked him with a knowing smile. At no point, did she seem offended by his distrust.

“Yup, everythingʼs here. Pleasure doing business with you,” Seth finally said and offered his hand to finish the deal. “ The pleasure is mine. Who would have thought I would finally get a legendary item in my shop,” she accepted his handshake with a strong grip.

As they were finished in the shop, they said their farewells and left. Stepping out from the store standing in the middle of the little shop lot, the trio noticed that the sun already stood high in the sky. Shocked, they checked the time, finding that it was already past lunchtime.

“We have to hurry if we want to see the ceremony!” Fin exclaimed agitated. She and Mina had been looking forward to this since they planned the trip. Pressured by the fear of missing out, they hurriedly left the bazaar, not stopping at the Snake Station because the snake was too slow.

Seth would have wanted to use Vegr and Drejtim, but the two golem griffins were too iconic, and neither Fin nor Mina had a flying mount that could have brought them there quickly enough, which forced them to sprint all the way to the base of the Guardian Tree sapling, to be just in time for the performance.