Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1333: The final draft

---Minas Mar, Workshop---

Seth had a hard time concentrating after Nädelʼs overwhelming reveal and took a while to rejoin the discussion concerning the Sky Dragon Set. Despite that, the council of masters was able to finish the final blueprint the day after. Following their discussion, Seth was at one of the workbenches, going over the blueprint once again.

The final draft was not your typical full-plate knight armor. Instead of a fully connected shell, it was a light set focused on movability, which could be worn on top of a robe, gambeson or chain shirt. No matter how good the defense of the armor, mages were glass cannons and needed to be able to run. Not every caster could master to get away.

Consisting of a helmet, a cuirass, vambraces, greaves and cuisses, the set would ideally be coupled with with trousers and a padded jacked made by Neeco Boos using the beastʼs wing leather. That way, if Seth got his hands on a fitting soul, the armor set could be further elevated, depending on the soul.

This was a not the blueprint perfectly finished armor, but the basic armor without any enchantments whatsoever. It wholly concentrated maximizing the dragon materialʼs power in an item set. The five had decided on this as a preliminary step, as there were simply too many variation it could take when enchantments were applied.

They simply couldnʼt agree on one layout of enchantments that would have been the best for the materials. Ultimately, it was the recipient who would wear the armor, that would be the deciding factor of what enchantments needed to be added, to support them as best as possible.

After all, this was the big advantage of custom made equipment. It was not a fit for all, but would be tailored to the userʼs specifications. Another advantage of the basic blueprint was, that it also worked for the relic-rated materials.

But it was not just the basic blueprint for the set they had designed. over the course of the discussion, there had obviously been many individual ideas and design suggestions that came up, but didnʼt make it to the final draft.

Instead of discarding these, they had all been recorded as their own, individual blueprints for later use. After all, even if Seth was able to upgrade all the materials, there were still not enough to make a full set for every mage and caster.

That was okay, as not everyone needed a full set of new armor. Their most prominent mages were already fitted with custom exemplars of the Lunatic Set, or wore a mix of legendary and relic-rated items.
Although they didnʼt need a full armor, they could still profit from wearing individual pieces of Sky Dragon equipment or accessories. This was the reason they recorded all the promising ideas, even if they didnʼt make it to the final blueprint.

Acknowledging that not everyone could have a full set obviously raised the question of who would be getting a full set. Currently, Seth had two people in mind that would be able really profit from the Sky Dragon armor that not only supported magic, but also displayed great defensive qualities.

Azul, Monique, and Misto.

The former leader of the chimeras was predominantly a lightning mage, but also liked to engage in close quarters. Especially since she recently started dual-wielding magic polearms with her four arms, wielding the Palpatating Spear and Sokolovʼs Lightning Rod. Azul would probably profit the most from this set.

Next in line was Monique. Although Monique was originally a warrior who gained the epic class of Spear Demon, she had many magical skills, especially since she became the Chosen of Athena. She had always liked a more light to medium-weight armor, so the Sky Dragon Set would perfectly meet her needs and preferences.

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Misto, the Mist demon, was originally a pure caster, but used his skills like an assassin. His style had slightly changed after he was given the legendary item of Shousuke. Although he already possessed Sousukeʼs Mirage Jacket, he would be able to wear the armor on top of it.

Other people Seth initially considered offering a set to were Ferdinand, Lyxiss, Feanys, Lydia, and Cade Albright. However, he was not sure about them. Ferdinand was a healer. Although he would be able to profit from the Sky Dragon armor, there might be better options for him.

It was similar for Lyxiss. After she lost her robe, she had been wearing a Lunatic Set instead. However, the elementalist needed an armor that could properly support her skills. The sky dragon armor was a good mage armor, but it wouldnʼt do her much better than her current loadout.

He had considered them, but ultimately thought that there would be better options for them in the future. The same applied for Lydia. The chosen of Wepwawet was originally an assassin and took up something akin to close-combat archery with the armaments of her god.

She relied mostly on physical damage and skills. For her, the only useful, basic power of the armor would have been its defense. In that case, Lydia didnʼt necessarily need this set, maybe there would come a chance to make her a set similar to Ortegaʼs using legendary or one like Minaʼs if the fitting materials came up.

Feanys was in a similar situation as Monique, but the blacksmith would need to have a deeper talk with her before making a decision. Seth didnʼt have as much knowledge about the workings of her skills, so he didnʼt quite know whether her situation was closer to Lydiaʼs or Moniqueʼs.

The last one he had taken into consideration was Cade Albright. in her case, Seth was pretty sure that she would profit from the Sky Dragon Armor, maybe even more than Monique. Because they had traveled together during the evaluation, he knew that much of her power relied on magic and spells. Ř𝙖𝐍Ő𝖇ƐŞ

Although they traveled together, Seth didnʼt know her. She was a subordinate of Leana. She had never been part of the teams. She became part of Minas Mar when Leana joined, but she had always been outside. Although she was technically allowed in the tower and had a room here, she had never visited.

Albright had collected accomplishments during the battle against the Scene and during the Great Tournament and its preparations, so there was probably no one who would argue whether she deserved it or not. Yet, the blacksmith felt apprehensive to give a full legendary set to someone he barely knew, when many of his closest friends were still lacking one.

It was a similar situation with Ortega, but Ortega was a team leader of the Oathguard for quite a while and became the Chosen of Montu, before Seth even considered making items for him... And it was mostly an aesthetic decision because he wanted to see them together with Mike in their beast forms, wearing similar armors, both dual-wielding blades.

Since he was still conflicted about offering her one or not, the blacksmith decided that they would probably have to have a long talk int he future. But for now, it could be put on the back burner. Azul ,Monique and Misto would get their armors first, and Minas Armor needed to be finished, too. Then he would talk with Faenys and THEN, if he didnʼt find anything else he could do first, he would try to make a decision about Cade.

For now, he was glad they were done with the big discussion. Now, he could focus on making the Sky Dragon Armor for Azul. They had already scheduled an appointment for tomorrow, to talk about her wishes for the armor and to get her measurements. Afterward Seth could adjust the blueprint depending on her wishes and add enchantments.

With the good news from Beta and the hopefully soon return of TanoʼMol, the blacksmith might even be able to procure a fitting soul, without having to leave Delta. Otherwise, if the goat couldnʼt help in time, he may have to go hunt souls himself again.

...Maybe it was a good idea and create something like Soul gems, or something like that, so others could also collect souls for him. If he could tickle the secrets of the soul, capturing formation out of the demon, that might be possible. Although he would only get what was naturally dropped by the beast, that was still better than nothing.

As he was musing over such possibilities, the door to the workshop was slowly opening, and someone was sneakily peering inside. Seth recognized the pair of shifty eyes. A visitor he had not seen in a while, not since he brought the .

“Hubert?”