Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The one to suffer immediately was Neeco Boos, as he suddenly vanished from his warm and soft bed, where he had slept beside Alison. The tailor appeared in his workshop, only wearing his pair of boxer shorts. The cold floor against his back immediately had him wide awake

“KYAA!”

A high-pitched screech escaped his throat when woke up in a dark room, and saw a towering dark figure, looming over him.

“Neeco, you need to appraise this,” the Tower Master ordered him with manic eyes, holding up the pitch-black garment of death. Had the blacksmith finished it? Had the blacksmith kidnapped him from the side of his girlfriend in the middle of the night, just to appraise an item for him? Yes, yes, he did.

The tailor wanted to complain and curse, but all his grumbling got stuck in his throat when he threw an appraising glance at the “Garment of Death”. The item had gone through a great change under the hand of the Tower Master.

<Garment of Styx

Legendary

Death Set 1/7

Phys. Def.: 900

Mag: Def: 1300

Durability: 2900+1000

1. Death Domination

2. Item can't be damaged by physical attacks

3. +150% Power to Divine Skills

4. +105 Strength

5. +105 Endurance

6. Dipped in Styx

7. Active Skill: Suicide

8. Active Skill: Shield of Faith

9. Active Skill: Death Ward

10. Passive Skill: Skin of Styx (Sealed)

Set Effects:

"Active Skill: Suicide" is changed to "Active Skill: Aura of Decay"

Trait: Master of Necromancy

A garment that can spell death or life for the user. A diabolical piece of equipment created from the cooperation of Master Boos and Master Smith, the first Master Enchanter, and Master Blacksmith of Urth.

The Nymph Styx has taken interest in the item and lent some of her strength. Bringing it to a Temple of Hades or Persephone might have the Nymph Styx give her blessing to such extraordinary clothing.

Part of the Armor of Death, a Magnum Opus by Master Smith>

The Tailor almost choked, what was all this? The defense had more than tripled! He clearly remembered the durability was only 750 before- Over 100 to several attributes? What in the world was “Dipped in Styx”?

Neeco took a moment to wrap his head around the new effects, enchantments, and skills the Garment of Styx now offered. The cause for the new name was most likely this effect “Dipped in Styx” which made the gambeson able to invalidate damage from “ordinary weapons”.

He had no idea where the paladin skills came from, whereas the <Death Ward> definitely wasn't what he remembered of the skill. Wasn't it supposed to ward off death? This skill created an area filled with the aura of death... kind of the opposite. <Shield of Faith>? That still seemed normal.

Towering over these all were the set effects. The first got rid of the only drawback of the item and turned it into a powerful attack skill. “Master of Necromancy” on the other hand doubled the effects and power of all necromancy spells and raised <Necromancy> by an entire tier.

All of his shock and questions were overshadowed by the feelings caused by the item description. He felt a warmth deep in his chest when he found that he was not only mentioned in the description but that he was mentioned first.

As a result, he felt even more touched when he found out the Styx was not just interested but even willing to give a blessing. “Would this blessing reveal what the sealed skills could do?” the tailor wondered.

“I can see that you appraised it. Write the information down for me, hurry. I want all the details,” Seth demanded of him. Now, Neeco understood why the blacksmith was so intent on knowing the effects. After all, this was part of his Magnum Opuses. Taking pen and paper, he quickly wrote down, everything he saw.

...

When he finally got the note from Neeco, Seth rapidly calmed down. Although it was not the same as seeing it himself, his heart still raced when he saw the effects of the synergies and the various skills the item had inherited from the soul.

Reading about the improvement is durability and defense...he questioned why he had gone to the trouble of increasing the durability. His only soothing was the thought that there might not have been a synergy without it.

When the improvement of the stats made him question his choice in enchantments, “Dipped in Styx” made him question why he even made an armor for Evee, when this gambeson alone was already as good as wearing a legendary armor, anyway.

Negating the damage of ordinary weapons was almost as good as the weapon damage negation of his own armor. The only reason it was worse, was that it wouldn't work against weapons that were out of the ordinary. This distinction was drawn between the epic and relic rating. This meant Relics and Legendary armaments would still be able to hurt Evee, despite the garment.

He felt complimented that even the gods acknowledged their work, but where would this end when visiting the Temple of Hades or Persephone could lead to the gambeson being blessed by Styx, further enhancing the protective capabilities of his Magnum Opus? Would Evee even need the rest of the armor if <Skin of Styx> was unlocked?

As for Evee as the Chosen of Persephone, if she really went to the temple of Persephone, would she just get the Blessing of Styx on her gambeson? With her luck, her patron might even bless the whole armor for her...

Although Seth may have sounded like he was grumbling at the start of that sentence, he had a change in thought at the end of it. If Persephone were to bless the armor on top of what it already could, ti would be even better for him.

There was no question about doing it or not. Even if it meant that Evee would have to go on her own pilgrimage, similar to Mike. Even if she had to visit another world to do so since there were no Temples of Hades on Urth.

Maybe it was good for Evee and some of the others to get out and see a different world, for once. Like a vacation, they deserved it. Now he only had to convince Evee that she deserved a Vacation in a different world.

It might be hard to persuade her and some of the others with the current situation on Urth, he wasn't that sure himself, whether it was a good idea to do it immediately. But on the other hand, maybe it was better to hurry BECAUSE of the situation.

If their resident Necromancer Queen became even stronger before things started to escalate, the escalation might not be as bad as it would be otherwise.

“C-Can I go to bed now?” the tailor asked weakly, disrupting his thoughts.

“Oh! Yeah, sorry Neeco,” he said apologetically.

“Don't mind it, I understand your reaction,” Neeco assured before the Tower Ego teleported him back to his room.

Seth also realized how late it had gotten. It was almost morning now and the fatigue of the work he did caught up with him. With a sigh he put the garment in his inventory he returned to his quarters to take a shower and sneak to Fin and Mina in bed.