Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth had recently learned that a comprehensive build-up of experience and knowledge could majorly improve the power of items, even without relying on the inherent rating of the material, he didn't have the time or capacity to do so at the moment.

There were still many things he didn't know in smithing and enchantment, that he had yet to learn and comprehend. Skipping this step by using the material rating of special skills to make high-rated items without the foundation was a cheat not many could abuse as readily as Seth.

Although creating the foundation with time and effort led to better results, the blacksmith decided to simply grind the skills. After all, he had no intention to become a sublime carpenter or an omniscient alchemist. He was a blacksmith, he wanted to stay one. Even his bardic skills were just a support to his original class, outside of combat. It was no different for these other skills.

The ultimate goal was to quickly improve his skills as a maestro in this way. If he needed more knowledge in brewing potions, tailoring, or working wood, he could always gain it at a later time. He had made that decision and intended to go through with it.

Entering the cavern of the original Hanging Tree, which had now become a legendary Guardian Tree, Seth stepped to its trunk and knocked against it, like knocking against a door.

“Karina, can you hear me?” he asked the tree and waited. Moments later the dryad stepped out of the tree, as if it was just an illusion that hid her.

“How can I help you, Seth?” she asked helpfully. She seemed in a good mood. Was her cooperation with Evan on the creation of a subway connection between the Tree Stations going well, or was she just happy to get away from that work?

“I will be working on raising my <Carpentry> skill from now on and I hoped you could make me a storage of epic and relic-rated wood to use,” he requested from her.

“Oh, was that all...? I hoped, maybe..?” she stammered and seemed a little disappointed. It seemed that she not quite enjoyed working with Evan. Who would have thought that the benign Karina would be able to get along with the tamer?

“You know, Thres is still waiting for their tree. Maybe, if you finish this quickly, you could travel there and expand the net of tree Stations?” Seth offered her a juicy reward. At the same time, he would be able to catch up on the promise he had made.

After all, Mike had reported that Adam really did his best to restore the city for people to live in. Maybe there were some survivors from beta, or even Thres that managed to flee from Y-City and wished to return to their home. Whether people actually moved there, or not was not Seth's business. The Mur Empire had not the best reputation because of their invasion attempts in the beginning of the apocalypse, maybe there were people who could look past that for Adams sake.

“Deal! A nice vaca- I mean a work trip is just what I need for a change of environment!” she said happily. Maybe it was just Seth's imagination, but he felt that Karina had become more lively after her tree became the Guardian Tree.

She started right away, sending Seth away with a load of wooden blocks and dowels just an hour later. With his new motivation and a truckload of wood, Seth returned to his workshop, to start doing <Carpentry>.

This time he had no intention to honor the technical skills of the craft and cheat with all of his other skills. This was about quantity and speed, all that mattered was that the finished product counted as a product of the <Carpentry> skill, so he would gain proficiency.

There was no meticulous carving of a bow, no gluing of layers, the closest he came to actually working the wood was cutting notches for the bowstring and sanding the bow smooth. Other than that, he shamelessly forged the bows on his anvil, producing a simple bow blank at a pace of roughly 5 per hour. Every time he finished 10, he would take half an hour to sand them down, add the string, and refine them to make sure they bend correctly for smooth and accurate shooting. This meant he finished 10 epic bows every 2,5 hours.

<Ding! Your skill Carpentry (Craftsman) lv.2 has become Carpentry (Craftsman) lv.3!>

After finishing the first them bows his level rose. He was still early in the craftsman tier of <Carpentry>, so gaining proficiency with epic items was not hard, but just this first level up already halved the proficiency he got for the same bow. Yet, Seth continued for a while making another 1,5 batches of bows.

Still quite relaxed, Seth finished his day when he was done with his 25thbow. Neither was it very late nor was the blacksmith tired. The reason he stopped here was because there was another person he wanted to visit before they got off work.

Grant May, the best of the three enchanters they had hired and nurtured. He had shown the biggest growth among the three with a special talent for weapon enchantments. The reason was quite simple, the bows were a little too plain to sell in the auction house as they were.

Apart from their incredibly high basic stats, the bows only had the Disposition of the Guardian Tree, which was not very helpful on a projectile weapon. There was a life steal effect, but only if the bow was directly used as a club, but melee damage would purely rely on the user's stats and would not see any improvement.

The 20% raise in defense, when defending one's allies was quite okay, but very conditional. This was why Seth had the idea, too give all of these blanks he and later on Nädel would make for training, to the enchanters to raise their proficiency and the price in the auction. This way they struck several birds with one stone.

“Grant, are you still here?” Seth announced his presence as he entered the enchantment lab, one of the ones Al'Zalsar had renovated before she got her own place. This was the domain of the enchanters, magicians who specialized in imbuing items through a row of magic formations, spells, and arcane materials. It was a very complicated science. Seth knew some of the principles and formulas, but it was still far outside his expertise.

“T-Tower Master?” the man in question asked sleepily. He found Grant at a desk in the back, bending over a bunch of notes that showed fresh stains of saliva. This guy had actually fallen asleep at his desk and drooled all over his notes.

“Grant, you should really think more about your own health. Staying long to the point that you fall asleep in the lab isn't healthy or helpful.”

“I'm sorry, Tower Master. I just wanted to finish this before returning... oh no,” anguished he looked at the notes he drooled on. Some parts were illegible, other parts were barely more than the doodles of someone lacking sleep. It was clear from his expression, that his sleep-deprived self had not done any useful work. With a sigh, he threw the paper in the bin.

“Anyways, what can I do for you, Tower Master?”

“I told you Seth was okay, but ...forget it. Here, enchant these 25 bows as you see fit and bring them to me when you are done. It doesn't have to be anything special, since I will be selling those on the auction house.”

Seth looked at the man and halted for a moment. Maybe it was not his place to say something, as he had just brought him more work, but he was also his boss and responsible for the guy.

“And take your time, it isn't urgent. Try looking after yourself a little more. I know it's hard to let go of a captivating task, but you should look after yourself a little more,” the workaholic who learned his lesson, relayed his wisdom to the slightly younger man.

“Ahh...sure. Thank you, Tow- ..Seth,” the enchanter answered, hesitatingly calling the blacksmith by his name.

“Well, then, I will leave you to your work, or rather, you should go get to bed and continue tomorrow.”

With that, Seth vanished using the Tower's teleportation and returned home to spend the evening with Fin and Mina.