Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

1006  1005. Alchemy Station

Creating an alchemy table from the parts of a soul was much more challenging than Seth had expected and it wasn't because Neloth kept trying to argue and negotiate with him. It was simply very different from making weapons, or armor.

The central cauldron was still one of the easier parts. It became very finicky when he started working on the parts for the distillery. These were the parts that would be made of intricate glass objects on a normal alchemy station.

Frustration was no stranger to Seth, so he clenched his teeth and kept at it, even if he had to do it several times over. Beakers, fine tubes, spiraling tubes, valves, Seth recreated all the set-up they also had in their own laboratories here in Minas Mar.

While he was working on it, he was still battling the doubts, about whether this all was even needed. Would the crafting station even need to go through all the processes to make a potion? Would these parts made of the soul work the same way that the physical devices did?

Or would it all just end up as decoration, while the soul could use the skills internally to take in ingredients and spit out finished potions? No, at least it wouldn't turn into a magical cauldron. Neloth didn't have the right skills to make him believe that.

Still. he was putting a lot of work into it, while he was actually just grasping in the dark, This was his first time trying to make a crafting station and he was not too sure how it would work out in the end. If it even did.

As frustrating as it was, doing something very different also gave Seth deeper insights into his <Soul Forging> skill and the shaping of a soul. Using the skill together with <Energy Manipulation 3> and Charon's Obol allowed him to create the more intricate structures. Despite the difficulty, a complete alchemy station took shape over the course of half a day.

~What are you trying to do with that thing?~ Neloth asked panicky when Seth brought out the engraving tool. There was no reason to lie to him.

~I'm going to engrave an enchantment invented by Hephaestus, the god of craftsman, onto you. It's golem core circuit that will hopefully make you a good and obedient crafting station.~ he answered, a friendly smile swinging along in his voice.

Neloth fell silent. Interestingly, he did not start begging. He was a villain, a scourge of the battlefield. He probably knew that begging was not going to work. Nobody would think, he didn't deserve this.

~How about a deal?~ he asked the moment the engraver was about to touch him.

~Sorry, there is no deal you will like.~ Seth revealed. There was nothing he could offer the demon. There was no freedom he could get, no agency he could negotiate. What Seth wanted was a crafting station.

The bard was shocked at the ease at which he was able to register the alchemy station. Now, that he understood it, it was almost shameful how he didn't get it before. It was only now Seth realized how he could have gained proficiency in the skill, before unlocking all the perks.

As all the crafting stations were fully or in part made souls, Seth could have strengthened them with <Soul Infusion> at any time, given the right souls this could have naturally unlocked the upgrades he had forcefully unlocked with skill points. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novelenglish.net . Fire(.)nᴇt

With the <Soul Smithy> reaching max-level thanks to the bonus of creating an exceptional crafting station as his first, a result of failing to really understand the skill and just raising his crafting skills, every crafting station was once again strengthened and there was one last perk unlocked.

His eyes started shining when he saw what this perk allowed him to do. The Golem Forge no longer had a size limit! Although it clearly stated that the processing time would rise exponentially with the size, it was no longer limited to medium and below-sized creatures. Asterion with his over 3 meters height still snuggly fit in, but they couldn't be much bigger before.

But this was something for the future, he would still have to know how much the time requirement would increase. For now, his focus returned back to the alchemy station, which also had experienced some changes after it was integrated into the skill.

While the soul device he created would have been invisible to anyone else, the final crafting station had become much more corporeal, just like the anvil and the furnace. In addition, he was also given the option to sacrifice some of his inventory slots to create inventory space for the alchemy station.

Although Seth had worried about giving the crafting station a subspace before, he decided against this now. The reason was quite simple, he now knew, that he had the very power to adapt and improve the crafting stations of the <Soul Smithy>.

Instead of sacrificing his valuable inventory space, Seth rather looked forward to the chance to further improve the Alchemy table in the future. He had not forgotten that the subspace of Legion was the result of a material Master Mountain brought him and Al'Zalsar's magic.

Although he didn't know what Al was up to and was hardly able to replicate her achievements, he was very well in the position to wait for more of the materials to come in. After all, the reports of cultivators appearing in the vicinity of Y-City, Delta, and even as far as the Unclaimed Mountains raised the possibility of getting his hand on one of their spatial treasures or corresponding materials.

Yu had told him that strong cultivators had stuff like space rings, or cosmos pouches that were able to hold huge quantities of stuff. Since Neloth was an ego, he saw no problem in appropriating one of those treasures to become part of his alchemy station. Then the ego would be able to control and access the subspace. At least that was his rough idea.

"Shall we test out, how well you are able to craft potion?" Seth exclaimed happily.

His face fell moments later.