Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1392. Sky Demon Shoulder

“What happened?” the blacksmith silently exclaimed in his mind, as he checked the effects of the pauldron. Not only had some options he expected changes, but there were three additional passive skills, and three traits that seemingly came out of nowhere.

Seth ignored Faenysʼ stare as he tried to make sense of the current state of the items. First the traits. The Crow Killer trait was expected, as it was the effect of the forging ballad. Apart from that, Seth had planned for the Dragon heritage trait, since he used a dragonnewt soul and the dragon scales.

It must have been this one that had been changed, but why did it become three? Judging by the names, it had something to do with the power of Bune; heck, everything was somehow tied to the power imbued into the three short sentences.

The left pauldron had the Dog Heritage, while the right had the Griffin Heritage; the set effect had Buneʼs Heritage, and they all followed more or less the same pattern as the expected passive skill, except that what they raised was everything Dragon Heritage raised.

Dog Heritage raised attack, defense, and self-healing by 20% when serving someone or acting on their orders. Griffin Heritage did the same in case you were in a commanding position. Buneʼs was a slight exception, as it was always active and also raised Mana Regeneration by the same degree.

The other obvious effect of the poem where the slew of passive skills that were added to the individual items and the set effect:

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, (Left)

,(Right)

,(Set)

.(Set)

The original was still the same as the blacksmith intended. If the conditions were met, the wearerʼs overall damage and defense were raised by 15%.

In , the conditions for dogs and griffins stayed the same, but it seemed like the strength of crows was the pursuit. So one would gain the buff when chasing a target.

It was similar for the other two skills. The condition changed, but the buff stayed the same. The strength of wolves was the pack, so one gained the buff when fighting in a party. The strength of dragons was the opposite. The strength of dragons was apparently solitude, as one would gain the buff when fighting solo.

At this point, no matter what Faenys did, at least one of these buffs would apply, and in the best case... Seth halted for a moment when he realized the boon of not just the duplicate skills, but also the duplicate traits. None of them stated that the effects didnʼt stack.

If she were chasing someone, she would gain the buff of the Crow twice, or when she was fighting alone, she would gain the buff of the dragon twice. On top of that, like in the original skill, none of these were exclusive to each other, except for Wolves and Dragon.

If she chased someone at a party based on an order, she would gain the buffs of wolves x2, crows x2, and dogs x3, which would more than double her overall damage and defense. The effects of the items had become a lot more powerful than Seth had planned for.

As for the how.... It was clearly mentioned in the notification and flavor text of the item. It was the power of the four demons interacting with each other, the soul, and the material. The Wolves were probably Marchiosas, who were usually depicted as a wolf, with griffin wings and a snake tail. The dragon had to be Bune, the demon dragon, as well as the soul and the scales.

As for the crow, it had to be the forging ballad, although Seth didnʼt know what demon it actually belonged to. It was not mentioned in the book. He knew a few great demons that took the form of a crow or a raven, but none of their attributes fit the savage song. However, it had to be the source of the crows.

Apart from the skills and traits, there was only one simple change left. It was the effect “Buneʼs Strength”, which would have been the culmination of the skills of the dragonnewt souls. Since dragonnewts focused mostly on physical attack skills, it would have raised all physical attack skills by some amount.

Bune, however, was a demonic dragon well-versed in strength and magic. Buneʼs Strength on the right pauldron raised the power of magic attack skills by 3 levels, while it raised physical attack skills on the left.

Only when he figured these out for himself did he turn to the Chosen of Phobos, who was looking at him with expectant eyes. So he started with the intended effects and skills before he laid out his own insights.

“A part of the Sky Dragon effect, bot pauldron grand the Crow Killer Trait. It helps conceal your presence, increases the power of sneak attacks, and adds a bleeding and slow effect to your slashing attacks.” Seth roughly explained the trait.

She would get a better feeling for it when wearing it later than when listening to him explaining it. The next easiest was Buneʼs Strength, which raised the level of all attack skills by 3 when both pauldrons were worn. With that, he transitioned to explaining the differences between the two shoulder armors.

“The right one grants you , which raises Strength, Willpower, and Mental Resistance based on your situation. It helps you to rise up to the challenge, improving all three by up to 25%. On the left, you have the passive skill , which improves speed, attack speed, and bleeding effects,” the bar explained succinctly, before he started with the slew of remaining traits and skills.

Explaining when they took effect and how they stacked was what really got her eyes glistening. Like any other piece and set of the armor, the pauldron, independent from the full set was already extremely powerful. They would only shine brighter in synergy with the rest of the set, and that was what really got Faenys excited.

They were still missing the gauntlets, but the set already had the potential to make her several times stronger than she already was. Which was exactly the point of a personalized set. When Seth was done with the explanation, he placed the pauldrons on the armor stand and they both stared at the armor for a while.

“So, tomorrow itʼs the gauntlets and then it is finished?” Faenys broke the silence.

“Yes, I guess so...” the blacksmith said. If he finished the Sky Dragon Armor the next day, it would mean that he had cranked out a full legendary armor set within a week. At this pace, he might actually be able to keep the schedule.

“Well, then, until tomorrow. Good night,” Faenys said and stood up to leave.

“Good night.”