Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"It's a shame I can't steal a living boss from the dungeon," the bard mumbled a few hours later.

"Yes, Master. I wish I could follow you to the ends of the world." Solar Solace wept, kneeling at his feet.

It had taken quite a lot of time and resources to convert the boss with a level in the triple digits, but ultimately it had no way to escape the bard angelic voice that wormed its way into the boss's brain. The only problem was that Solar Solace wouldn't be able to follow him.

If he were to renounce his status and dungeon boss and dungeon master here to leave with Seth, he would die before leaving this dungeon by the means of his own faction. This only left them one way.

"Is this really the best way?" Seth asked a little doubtful.

"Yes, as long as I don't resist, it will swiftly end my life," the boss confirmed it.

Seth grabbed the massive man's shoulder with his right hand, where he wore Lesath, and activated the <Demonic Debt>, placing powerful curses of disease on the angel made of light. The spread of demonic power in his body was visible as if it infects his blood veins like a sepsis. The dark network quickly spread to his whole body and the bright light dimmed, becoming pale and lifeless like a corpse.

"I guess this is goodbye," Solace mumbled weakly.

"No, this is a "See you later.". I'm sure you will find a way to return you your master."

Seeing Solar Solace so subservient, Seth actually grew a liking for the boss. Not to mention that he spent six hours serenading to it, to thoroughly wash its brain. He had to kill it here, but it didn't mean that his demonic suggestion would be released. The bard had paid souls to break his spirits, it better wouldn't be broken by simply dying.

"Yes, Master. I will find a way back to you," it acknowledged its duty with its last gasp before it crumpled to pale specks of light, like ashes. Seth couldn't help to think, that its last somber smile fit its name a lot better than the arrogant attitude it had shown before.

<Ding! You have received the Pledge of Solace.>

<Ding! You have killed -Solar Solace lv.135 (Boss)- You have earned Experience.>

A sudden notification told him as the last specks of Solar Solace vanished, just before he received his experience. For a moment he thought how easy it had been to kill a lv.135 boss, but it was similar to his situation with Al'Zalsar. When the boss didn't resist and even helped in killing himself, the level didn't matter.

Curious he checked his status to find that he was at the cusp of leveling up, just short a sliver of experience. Solar Solace had really given me a lot of experience. The next thing that caught his eye was the Pledge of Solace. It wasn't a skill or a trait, but it was displayed in the same place as Mark of Ivice.

~ Tsk, cheater. Stop collecting these. You only need the Mark of Ivice.~ Puffles said grumpily, when Seth told him, that he got another divine friendship bracelet.

At this point, Seth doubted that Solar Solace would escape the demonic brainwashing, not even through death. It was so strong that it even made the deity pledge its allegiance to him with its own power. Even if it somehow came to its sense later or was reverse mind controlled, nothing could erase this pledge.

All that was left was to-

~Out with everything you have!~ Tatzel the size of a bus was slowly scratching along the surface of the dungeon core with his pitch-black scales as he threatened to squeeze it.

What flowed from the core was a sizable mount of gold, roughly 500 pieces, and a small bead glowing in a mysterious orange light.

<Sun Bead, Crafting Material

Relic

1. +200% Power in bright places

2. Trait: Acolyte of the Sun

3. +100% Power to Shadow Magic

4. +150% Power to Light Magic

5. +75% Power to Healing Magic

6. Active Skill: Light Shape

7. Active Skill: Resurrection

An orb with the powers of the Sun, used by someone who had stepped on the Path of Legends,

Once this bead becomes widely known or plays a role in the user's ascend to a legend, the item has a high chance to become legendary.>

This was practically the mirror image of the Orb of Dusk he had gotten earlier. It was suspicious that this didn't drop from Solar Solace, but was spat out by the dungeon core. Wouldn't it have made more sense for Solar Solace to have and drop it? Maybe it was a drop for dungeons of this faction and Solace simply didn't droop his because he was lucky. He didn't drop a soul either.

~Good job, Tatzel. You can take 100 gold as an allowance.~

500 Gold was also a massive drop. On the other hand, if one thought of the difficulty of the dungeon, it really made more sense to come here for experience, than for the loot. Seth could make that much money when he threw a bunch of his casual products into the auction house.

~What about me?~ Puffles asked jealously.

~What about you? Did you do something today? I'm joking. You get the drops from the next dungeon we find. ~

After all, it wasn't Puffles' fault that Seth and Tatzel wanted to monopolize the experience. Since both, Tatzel and Seth were a little tuckered out, he thought it was a good idea to let Puffles carry them through the next one.

For a moment, Seth thought about giving the bead to Puffles, but he would rather make an item with it. He would later decide whether he would give that item to Puffles, or someone else. The problem was that Puffles was purely light-based. The option of shadow magic would be wasted on him, especially since Puffles was already strong enough as is. If anything, Seth would make him armor, not jewelry.

~Hmm, fine. I will show you that it was a mistake to not do so from the start!~ the Ivicer agreed and they left the dungeon through the teleport formation that appeared after the boss died.

They returned to the large network of natural caves. The cool, moist air and darkness actually felt really refreshing compared to the dry heat and light of the last 30 floors of the last dungeon.

Seth took a deep breath and scowled.

"Do you smell this? It didn't smell like that before, right?"

~No?~

~ I don't smell anything, Mom.~

~Oh right, you guys are in your pet spaces.~

~Duh~ Puffles said sarcastically.

Seth smelled a kind of rotten stench that had not been there before and followed it. Something out of the ordinary down here had to mean something.

"Oh look, it's undead. That's perfect for you, Puffles," he exclaimed when they found the source of the stench, which was a cavern full of rotting flesh monsters. There were hundreds of elite undead above lv.90 and several bosses, one having a level in the triple digits.

Did a dungeon break while they were busy in another one? Or maybe they were ready to conquer another dungeon down here and amassed their troops for that? One way or the other, suddenly a huge beam of blazing light split the cavern, vaporizing anything in its way.

The menacing crowd of dead that resisted death looked to the ceiling of the cavern, where the nightmare centipede had already readied its next spell, bombing the whole cavern in a rain of smaller rays.

<Ding! Your party has killed -Pucdal the Rot lv.99 (Boss)- You have earned Experience.>

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.95!>

<Ding! A quest has been triggered!>