Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1291: For you and me

“I guess I should stay updated, huh?” Seth mumbled, finding a stack of papers placed on the table in his quartersʼ living room. Although he had managed to evade the administrative heads yesterday, it didnʼt mean the two women would leave him alone with his duties.

The papers were simply summaries of their various operation going on at the moment. It informed him of Mikeʼs decision to ask Alison to stay in Thres for the time being, while his teams went to find Adam.

Another report was Janeʼs status update on the world they had found beyond the cave system. Seth felt actually quite intrigued reading this report. A world of swords and magic, with a more or less developed magic society and the technology to create mechs and power armors without the assistance of the system. It sounded like Janeʼs team was on a fun adventure.

Pertaining to the other Abyss World they kept contact with, it informed him that Mary and Leana decided to send Luf, Rayki, and a team of Fear led by Bodeca to this world, to negotiate and test the good they had to offer.

As the death bride used to be called Luf the Wise and stopped emanating an aura of death, this seemed like a reasonable choice, although that meant the two were sending away the person meant to be their bodyguard. Unlike his girlfriends, these two were staying in Delta, protected by 5 legends, so there was little that could happen here.

Understandably, there was no more news on Lydiaʼs hunt for the sects. At least nothing he didnʼt know already. Apart from those, everything in Minas Mar seemed peaceful for now.

A small slip of paper mentioned that Neeco was asking for his presence. Apparently, they had found a moment to sit down with Dowloon in the meantime and discuss the plans for her robes with her. The blacksmith was relieved that this happened without him, as he had quite little interest in the sketches and designs Dowloon had tried to show him after the tournament.

Since the poison user had asked for a fabric armor, Seth was curious what the two needed him for, that Neeco would ask for a visit from him. Curious and a little apprehensive, Seth decided to give the tailor workshop a visit before getting back to work.

It was around 9 oʼclock in the morning, so he guessed the tailors were already at work. Thinking on Neeco Boos reminded him of something. Moments before he left his quarters, he brought out a potion of Refined Ogre Will. This was one of the Medicines he had bought.

This was one of the many medicines Seth had bought at Erkaʼs Specialty Shop. Together with Minas Fin, he had sorted through them when they were lazing around last day of vacation. Among the medicines, there were quite many with doubles and triples, and quite a few that they had yet to try.
What was important to note about these potions that could raise attributes and stats permanently was that they usually only worked once or twice at best, before one became immune to the effect. So they had sifted through and sorted the ones they already had and those they didnʼt.

Those that were not useful to either of them directly went on the heap that would be put in the guild treasury. Members of Minas Mar would be able to purchase these medicines, and Seth would be able to make back some of the money spent on this trip.

The ones sorted out this way made up roughly a third of the whole purchase. The rest were medicines they had not seen or taken before. They stored one of each of these to give them to Alison for research and divided the rest among themselves to consume.

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Since taking too many potions at once had a negative effect, they decided to take them slowly, consuming one every other day. The last potion Seth took was right after they finished organizing the stuff. That one had raised his dexterity by 4, to 435.

Right after consuming the potion, he heard the notification. Seth felt the power of the potion coursing through his veins as his Mental Power rose by a small sliver. It was a shame that multipliers and Mental Power were hidden stats.

Seeing some proper numbers would have made things much easier, but knowing the feeling of raising by 0.25 per point, he could make a rough estimate. His Willpower was around 500, which meant his Mental Power had risen by ~125.

Judging by how minuscule that felt, his base mental power had to be above 20,000 at this point, probably higher. Based on that, his multiplier was probably above 40 per point of Willpower. 20k as a base, without any of his item effects, sounded pretty good.

Of course, the better metric for how much mental power he had was how much he could use abilities like , , or without feeling a dent in his resource pool. As for the first one, Seth had a hard time ever running out of power to use it.

Putting the empty bottle away, Seth let out a satisfied burp. Despite the ugly name, it tasted like green apple, raising his appetite. After grabbing breakfast in the canteen, Seth finally paid his visit to the tailor Workshop, porting there with the help of the Tower.

“Neeco asked me to come by. Where is he?” Seth asked the apprentice, one of the people Nädel had brought with him, once he appeared at the workshop. The blacksmith wondered what the tailor might want from him. He just happened to have some business of his own with the tailors.

“Master Boos currently locked himself in his room and doesn’t answer,” the apprentice explained awkwardly. This seemed to be a common occurrence, looking at the way he said that. Not that Seth couldn’t understand a craftsman locking their doors to work in peace.

“Well, that’s alright. Is Nädel around? I might have business for him if he feels like he can rise to a challenge,” the bard joked a little in his phrasing, but meant what he said.

“You want to challenge this old man?” Nädel asked in his warm, easygoing voice and chuckled a little. “Hello, Nädel, it’s good to see you,” Seth greeted the tailor. “Yes, it is. You should come by more often to enjoy the view while it lasts,” the old man laughed.

“Sorry, I was quite busy lately, and there is still no end to it…” Seth said apologetically, shrugging his shoulders. “Ha! Tell me about it. Come on, let’s talk in my personal shop,” the tailor understood him and invited him to his room.

The blacksmith has recently heard that Nädel, thanks to the support of Neeco and Puffles, reached Craftsman lv.9, which meant he was now quite close to accomplishing his dream and becoming a master.

Seth thought this was a great chance to let Nädel work with his first legendary material and boost his proficiency, maybe directly to master tier. The business he intended to deal with, since he was already here, was Mina’s armor.

They had bought the armor set the cat girl liked, so Nädel could use it as a reference for the final piece. The primary material for her armor was going to be the hide of the undead legendary shadow leopard. Although its rank had suffered a little, owing to dying, the hide still held some of the power of a legend. Seth still intended to refine it before handing it to Nädel for further processing.

The tailor’s eyes sparkled when the blacksmith revealed his intentions. “But why me? Neeco will be reaching Master lv.2 soon. It would be better if you left it to him,” Nädel still argued, despite hungering for this chance.

He had two reasons to ask Nädel to do this and not Neeco, the master. The first was that Neeco was already busy. The second was trust. Seth simply trusted Nädel and his experience more, especially when facing this kind of chance. Under these circumstances, Seth would have bet money on Nädel creating a magnus opus, comparable to his own armor.

“I believe in you, Nädel. That’s why. I’m certain you will not disappoint me,” the bard said seriously. Before Nädel could argue further, there was a knock on the door. It was the apprentice, informing them that Neeco was out of his room.

“I will leave the set to you. You can start getting the blueprints ready, I will bring the hide once I refine it.”