Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"After gaining the fourth key for the door, the party tracked back down to the door at the lowest floor. Setting in the symbols for fire, wind, water, and earth completed the mural on the wall, and the final boss door was finally unlocked.

Beyond the door covered in ancient murals appeared a mighty-"

"Was it a dragon!?" an Oathguard exclaimed.

"Shut up when I'm narrating our story!" Ray threw a spoon at the guy who interrupted him. He turned back to the crowd of Oathguards and other members of Minas Mar.

"Anyway, beyond the door covered in ancient murals appeared a mighty elf sitting on a throne of tree roots. Tall, elegant, and beautiful, wearing a silver robe woven from wind it was a creature called a Noble of Elements. Combining all elements, he looked like a high elf made of flesh and blood. Only the cold, eyes made of ice betrayed his handsome image."

The crowd exclaimed in awe. After the story of the bosses of the four elements, it was easy to expect something made of a combination of all of them, but they expected a hulking monstrosity like the Gate Guardian, not the description of a handsome, petite high-elf.

"Don't underestimate it, just because it's not a grotesque beast. The noble was fast, strong, and endowed with mystic powers on top of many of the traits of our previous opponents. When Monqiue threw the Fang of Decay, it was unable to penetrate his fair skin. He was fast enough to dance around Jonah and his sword dances.

Magic of the four fundamental elements was unable to even graze him if it managed to hit at all. His attacks, magic and physical, were so strong even Tekar had a hard time blocking."

"Aren't you playing him up a little too much? How would you have beaten him if everyone had a hard time?" one of the new blacksmiths asked with doubt.

"It wasn't easy, as expected of such a dungeon. We managed to pull through with teamwork. Even with his terrible strength, do you really think he would have been able to resist the constant onslaught of legendary weapons?

I don't want to brag, but I may have been a major contributor this time around since the power of my ring finally came off cooldown. With its powerful buff, I was able to cast a tremendous slow on the boss, which allowed everyone to keep layering crowd control effects on him and chip away at his armor."

"As expected... you bogged him down with status effects and then trampled him to death..." an Oathguard summed it up.

"Hey! I mean, it's true, but you should formulate it a little nicer. It was a really terrifying boss, even when he paled against Dragos, that abomination," he ended with a shudder.

"You mean that thing the Tower Master brought to the lab right after returning?" someone asked.

"You know about it?" Ray asked curious.

"Not a lot. I know the Tower Master brought something to the laboratories. Ever since then, that old creep Cromwel is walking around with that disconcerting grin wherever he goes. It really gives one goosebumps."

"You should have seen what that Dragos guy looked like after he transformed. THAT was disturbing. Like a half-rotted undead skeleton wrapped in baby skin."

"Some people are eating over here!" someone complained. "Sorry~"

…

"Look at this. The armor of Lunacy is done," Seth revealed

"Oh!" "Ah!" "Wtf!" Leana exclaimed as she was the only one with an appraisal skill in the room.

The blacksmith already started to enjoy Leana's presence. Her reactions were really colorful. Everyone else was already used to his stuff, even the dwarves who could see the options, unlike Mina or Fin, who only saw a nice shiny new armor.

< Waxing Moon Cuirass

Lunacy Set 1/10

Epic

Phys. Def. :1450

Mag. Def. :2500

Durability:2700

1.+30% To all stats in the Moonlight

2.+65% Power of Spells

3. Encroachment of Lunacy

4.+15% To all stats in any Light

Lunacy Set Effect:

Passive Skill: Lunar Charge

Active Skill: Lunacy Unleashed

A finely crafted cuirass made of Ithildin, created by Master Smith, the first Master Enchanter, Master Blacksmith, and Master Goldsmith of Urth using advanced knowledge of material properties.>

Whereas the dwarven <Ithildin> the blacksmith got from Polter was comparable to epic <Olympian Silver>, Urth's <Ithildin> did not gain any added durability or defense in the refinement. Apart from the property of high magic conductivity, it "only" had the lunacy effects.

Since Urth's <Ithildin> still had the physical properties of <Mithril> the armor's physical defense was a little lacking for an epic armor. Even though it rivaled his Wyvern Cuirass in defense, this was mostly because of Seth's skills.

Since this was an armor the other blacksmiths would also be able to make, their output would be considerably lower once they started producing it. It wasn't a problem though, since it was intended for mages to wear. Its defense would always be better than most robes currently available. Maybe it would change once their new enchanters leveled up more and Neeco Boos started working with them.

Even then, Seth doubted they could come up with a robe better than this, even if Boos managed to make a true Sky Robe from Puffles' thread. The magical effects had not changed a lot. Since it was the prototype without any enchantment, it didn't look impressive at first, until one multiplied them by ten, since they were the base effects of each armor piece.

Seth had managed to slightly strengthen them, as he got more used to the materials and their arrangement in the process of making the armor. The wearer would grow 2.5 times stronger in any natural light source, 5,5 times in moonlight, and the power of spells was always increased by 7,5 times. The only effect that didn't stack was the Encroachment of Lunacy.

Now since the armor was finished, the set effects had also been added on top of that.

The Passive Skill <Lunar Charge> had two distinct effects. For one, it doubled Mana Regeneration in Moonlight. The second was the addition of an external mana pool, that grew by 1500 with every set piece worn.

This meant wearing the full set added an additional mana pool of 15 000 mana. There was only one drawback. The armors mana pool could only be charged through excess mana recovered in the moonlight. It was not a permanent increase but a resource the wearer had to manage.

<Lunacy Unleashed> on the other hand was a typical skill that gave a huge boost for a short time and led to a state of fatigue as a cost. For two minutes the skill halved cooldowns and casting times. In addition, all damage dealt was doubled. The period of fatigue led to the opposite effects, cooldowns, casting times, and received damage would be doubled for five minutes.

It was safe to say, nobody wanted to face the wearer in a moonlit night. And this was the armor still lacking any kind of enchantments or a soul. As the blacksmith rattled down the effects for everyone who couldn't blatantly see them like Leana, their jaws also slowly lowered.

Seth had put a lot of effort into researching the materials and creating the schematics for this armor. Seeing their baffled expression, he felt double satisfied with the result of his hard work.

"Hoen, Wedan, do you think you can do it?" he asked the two dwarven blacksmiths.

Since they now had fresh blood in the workshops, the dwarfs were free to do more interesting stuff than mass production and commission work. Once they worked out the best combination of enchantments, the dwarfs and Cerberus would be able to produce them on their own.

The effects would lower a little when one of the dwarves made the armor, instead of Seth, but the blacksmith didn't mind. With the mining golems at work, Minas Mar was able to monopolize on the <Mithril> mines they found along the tree route. With enough raw material, Al'Zalsar's people could produce almost as much <Ithildin> as they wanted.

Cerberus could have made an armor rivaling his, but the golem was occupied with a different task the blacksmith gave him.

"Wait! Wait. Are you telling me you want to mass produce these?" Leana asked incredulously.

"Mass produce is a big word. No. We will offer the ones these two make to the mages among our Oathguards. Of course, they would have to sign a soul contract so they wouldn't misappropriate them."

Leana only stared at him agape but did not comment further. She was worried about the <Encroachment of Lunacy>, but maybe she was alone with that worry. Maybe it was the risk they had to take to prepare Minas Mar...