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902. Jaws of Apep
🕑 Added 2023-09-20 18:11:33 +0000 UTCAs for the soul enchantment, the two Khopesh forged from the soul of the mantis general and only connected by a thin tether were covered in a line of a demonic poem, he had etched into their surface using the special acid Alison had invented for him.
Temporarily, the blacksmith had broken out in sweat as he got closer to the end of the prose, but not because of the difficulty or the demon he was channeling, but because the pot of special acid had been almost used up. Only a few drops remained, by the time Seth finished the hellish poem.
The bard would have to ask Alison to make more before he could think of etching souls again. The ingredients for this soul-corroding acid were quite rare and expensive. If it was cheap to mass produce, they might have been able to use this too, against the immortals and infected outside Delta.
But he couldn’t say that it wasn’t worth it, after all it was just enough to finish transcribing the Prose of Malphara onto the soul. This was a relic-rated text describing some of the various deeds the great demon had done herself or was carried out with her help.
Malphara was a demoness of hidden death and he had already used her help when he created the Ring of Gyges, though back then it came at the cost of her spying on the wearer. Now he was able to pay her off with common souls, also because the effects were not the same.
Back then he had called on her power of stealth, but she was also a Queen of Poisons, as extensively detailed in the prose he just wrote down. Literally, anything that had to do with killing without being found out.
With this, she was a perfect fit for the soul and the attributes of the weapons. Although a Khopesh was not necessarily your typical assassination weapon, the improvements that came with the prose would come in handy for anyone wielding it.
The last step was as always inserting the soul into the two swords and bathing it in the waters of Styx.
<Ding! You have created two legendary weapons.>
<Ding! A new pattern has been added to your path as the Legendary Forger>
<Ding! You have gained 200 points in Power of Existence.>
<Ding! Your level of Existence has slightly increased.>
< Lower Venom Dragon Khopesh
Lower Venom Dragon Khopesh-Set 1/2
Legendary
Phys. Damage: 2700
Durability: 4360
1. Venom Dragon Venom
2. +325% Piercing Damage
3. 20% Armor Destruction
4. Poison of Botis
5.+70 Strength
6. +70 Agility
7. -7% Poison Resistance on hit
Set Effect:
Aktive Skill: Malphara's Stalker
Passive Skill: Malphara's Poison Apprentice
Passive Skill: Malphara's Hitman
Trait: Twin Blade
One of a set of twin weapons created and enchanted by Master Smith, the first Master Enchanter, and Master Blacksmith of Urth. Reforged from the shards of the Fang of a Lower Venom Dragon and enhanced through demonic and mysterious means. A terrifying set of Weapons in the hand of any assassin.
Requirement: Poison Resistance of at least 50%>
With interest, Seth realized that he could also directly earn a small amount of PoE, by “simply” making legendary items. Although the number was low, only 100 points per item, it was good to keep in mind.
Like when finished the saint and the bride, his level of existence had also improved slightly. Truly just slightly, about 3% of the way to level 2. But it cemented his belief that he improved even with deeds that didn't directly align with his path. Even with Leana to explain things, there were still things he was learning.
After processing the notifications, the blacksmith checked out the new set. First he went over the effects, luckily his trait Olympian Myth had not been activated and the effects matched what he expected. The first was obviously Venom Dragon Venom, the very effect that made the fang legendary.
What differentiated a Lower Venom Dragon from a Venom Dragon, when their fangs still held the same power? The rest of their bodies! A Venom Dragon was a bonafide dragon, which also meant one could harvest legendary scales and bones and blood and everything from it.
Lower Dragons were still dragons, but they only inherited one trait from their race, such as the venomous fang. The rest of their bodies only had weakened effects, making them a lot easier to kill, but also less valuable. Still valuable enough to be hunted, and still hard enough to kill, of course.
Venom Dragon Venom was even above effects like Deadly Poison/Venom. It not only caused huge damage over time but also came with several physical debuffs like lethargy, weakness, slowness, confusion, and so on.
Everything else didn't need much of an explanation except maybe the set effect skills. All of the original effects of the soul had been further strengthened.
<Malphara's Stalker> was a camouflage skill that allowed one to become invisible for 2 minutes.
<Malphara's Poison Apprentice> increased all Poison Damage by 30%.
<Malphara's Hitman> strengthened all Assassin Skill by 2 skill levels.
The only thing that bothered him was the set name. Seth had not often used the function to change the names of his items since he unlocked it with the master tier. However, he was not quite satisfied with the set name Lower Venom Dragon Khopesh Set. In a fit of childish inspiration, he changed the set name to Jaws of Apep, the venomous snake that would try to kill the sun god during his nightly journey.
The blacksmith worried this could draw the wrong people's attention since Apep was an opponent even Seth would fight, but it fit just too well. And, after all, it was always a matter of interpretation. People could see someone wielding the Jaws of Apep as Apep’s servants, but it could also be taken that someone defeated Apep and ripped out its jaws to fight.
Similar to Medusa’s Head fixed to the Olympian Aegis, that could still be used to petrify enemies with her gaze, even after death. There was always more than one way to interpret stuff. No matter what, these were a set of legendary swords, Seth was sure someone would want to use them, even if they drew the ire of some gods or the interest of evil gods.
Of course, he would have to find that person first. Mina and Lydia had dual-wielding skills, but Mina preferred daggers and Lydia was already loaded with special weapons. Mike would be getting his own special weapon since he returned with the <Storm Ore>. In general, the members of the field teams were adequately equipped with legendary armaments.
At least none of them needed a set of swords. Most of the legendary items he was planning to make from these materials didn't have a chosen owner, yet. But that didn't really matter. The blacksmith was sure, that in the future, the make up and number of the Teams would keep changing, as either people like Link and Alison would drop out to concentrate on crafting, or others wished to lead their own teams like Jonah.
Another option was to talk with Mary about it. Maybe they could give it to one of the old guard, members of the Oathguard that had stayed with them from the start and showed potential, like Ortega and his teammates. It was not necessary for a new Field Team to absolutely have a Lord, or one of the original teams in them.
Until they found someone, Seth could just “begrudgingly” use them himself, too. They looked really cool and Seth didn't mind using them himself, but he just thought they would look even cooler in the hand of someone that could turn into a three-meter-tall anthropomorphic beast like Lydia or Mike could.
Seth himself didn’t really want that kind of ability, since it would destroy the whole purpose. Seth wanted to watch someone else fight like that with these swords. He could hardly watch himself, even if he could transform.
Although there currently wasn’t anyone to take the weapon, the basic objective in recycling the shards was achieved. Seth had a new entry in the window of enchantment available as the Legendary Forger called “Deadly Venom of the Lower Venom Dragon”.
Like with the others, before he reached legendary status, the strength ultimately depended on the amount of power of existence he was able to pump into it. Unnecessary to mention, that he was still lacking in power to make anything worth trying.
For now, Seth stored the two Khopesh away and turned to the other legendary pieces that were waiting for his attention. The legendary orb, the broken shield, and the broken hammer, the choice was not as difficult as one may expect.
The next item Seth wanted to make was the grand prize for their tournament and the only item eligible for that was the hammer since it was the only item made from metal. The broken hammer was actually made from true <Adamantium>, making it questionable how the Vampires even broke it.
This was not the artificial stuff Seth had once looted from the Theocracy of Chains, but the real legendary deal. He had to inspect the hammer thoroughly to find the reason why it broke. The hammer was once made of one continuous piece of metal. What broke was the junction between the hammer head and the handle.
The rough structure at the braking surface of the parts resembled wrongly tempered steel. Even when it was a natural weak point in the weapon construction and had a brittle tempering, the amount of force the vampires must have exerted to cause this kind of damage must have been terrifying.
Seeing this also worked as a warning to Seth. It seemed like <Adamantium>, like steel, belonged to the materials that needed a good heat treatment depending on the purpose of the workpiece. Tempering and heat treatment had not been a big part of Seth’s life as a blacksmith so far, since most of the materials he used did not depend on it.
Of course, he had some experience from working in a normal forge as the apprentice of Master Tored. Back then he learned to work without the quality-of-life effects his crafting stations offered him. He knew the basics of heat treatment of tempering but doing it with a legendary material for the first time was a different beast.
Despite this, the hammer was the best choice, since <Adamantium> had no other traits apart from being the physically strongest and hardest metal known. The broken shield was made from the scale of a beast called a Mountain Borer. Seth had never heard of a beast like this before getting this shield, but the material had strong defensive qualities. It would have been stupid to make a weapon from it.
So, before he closed shop for the day, Seth turned to the <Adamantium>
