Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

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.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

~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.

~I-I will do anything, just don\'t do that...~ His words were now shaking with existential threat. The blacksmith finally hesitated for a moment. He knew that one thing demons held dear the most was their personality and individuality. Especially a Maestro. It would save Seth quite some work if he could use a contract to force the demon into obedience.

~Hmm, sure, sign this then~ Seth ultimately decided that it was worth a try. What he created using <Soul Trade> was a binding contract stating one simple term. Neloth swore to be obedient to Seth or the user of the <Soul Smithy> skill. Despite his desperation, the demon hesitated when he saw that simple term.

They were actually the most dangerous for one simple reason. There was no If-then clause. A magical contract always gave a punishment of sorts for breaking the contract. A Soul contract usually did the same, however, if there was no consequence for breach, it literally meant that the contract would enforce itself even against the will of the party.

Neloth would not get the chance to be disobedient and suffer a punishment, he would simply be unable to do anything that went against his orders or damaging against Seth. It wouldn\'t even be able to pull a genie move and try malicious compliance. It was the ultimate oath of servitude.

~... I accept.~ Neloth finally agreed to the soul contract, sparing Seth from the task of engraving the complicated enchantment on the already complicated alchemy station. Having avoided needing to engrave the whole station, Seth could start with the most mysterious part. Usually, skills were self-explanatory. The knowledge surrounding their usage would flow into the user\'s mind and they would unlock more and more with growing proficiency and practice.

However, Seth had never found out how to raise proficiency in <Soul Smithy>, as simply summoning and unsummoning his crafting stations didn’t do the trick. He had constantly used skill points to raise its level. This might have been very well the first time he was going to use the true potential of the skill.

The blacksmith concentrated on the void in his mind, as if he was trying to activate a limb, he was never consciously aware of. It was very similar to the grasping in the dark when he tried to use <Soul Infusion> on the Garment of Death.

His concentration increased as he started focusing his senses on the soul alchemy station. Remembering the feeling of summoning and storing the other crafting stations, something finally clicked. As if a building block fell into a place, it was always meant to be.

The alchemy table vanished.

Then it reappeared.

And it vanished again.

<Ding! A new crafting station has been registered under your skill <Soul Smithy>! You have gained proficiency!>

<Ding! Your first crafting station is an exceptional work of craftsmanship and engineering. You have gained a bonus proficiency. The station will be automatically strengthened.>

<Ding! You Skill Soul Smithy lv.9 had become Soul Smithy lv. Max.>

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.

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.