Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

After he dropped about half of the crown in the valley, Seth finally returned to Minas Mar at midmorning. It was still a little early for Lunch, so Seth decided to give Neeco Boos a visit and inspect his new creation.

The blacksmith didn't go just because he was worried that Neeco's obsession flared up again, although Seth did worry that the tailor would once again try to make flimsy superhero suits popular, again.

His main reason was to see if it could replace his <Skysilk> pants, shirt, and robe combo he usually wore below his armor. They were also early works of Boos, but Seth had not replaced them since the Evaluation when he got them.

The other reason was Mike's safety. Since the beastman was going to rely on it in addition to the relic-rated frost-resistance armor Seth made for Bulko or the relic-rated Oathguard armor, he had to make sure this new suit was reliable.

~You worry too much. The little tailor improved a lot,~ even Puffles spoke in his favor.

With a quick teleport, Seth appeared in Neeco's workshop. It was very different from Seth's mostly because one was a smithy and the other a tailor's abode. He had shelves with fabric, several looms, and spinning wheels to create said fabrics.

The next room had big tables and tailor puppets with outfits in several stages of completion. The tailors they had recruited as Neeco's assistants were eagerly running around, working on various projects, while he found Neeco in deep thought, working on a suit that seemed to be made from a golden fabric, but with a blue tint. The was obviously <Sky Silk> in this, but it was not purely the ivicer's threat.

“Neeco, I heard you have fallen back into your old ways!” Seth scared the tailor, who had not noticed him yet.

“What! Seth? Who told you? I mean, No! No, I didn't!” the tailor exclaimed in shock.

“Hohoho, so you did!” Seth said jokingly. By the time they met for the first time, Seth may have been serious about his disdain for the man's fashion taste, but now that they knew each other a little better, the blacksmith just used it tease him.

He knew that Neeco realized, that only running around in a skin-tight pajama was simply throwing away a lot of possibilities to gain more strength through additional items. It was just fun to play along.

“I-It's a suit, but it's only meant to be worn below the padded shirt of your armor .”

Neeco hurriedly showed him the sketches he made, technically it was still a shirt and pants and not something like a wetsuit or a morphsuit Overall, they had a style resembling the sky robe Seth wore on top of his own shirt/pants combo. It just sat a little tighter, so Seth didn't quite see how this was an improvement, except maybe for Neeco's preferences.

“I can see the doubt in your face, let me explain the new feature of this suit or rather this new fabric. Unlike <Sky Silk> that only works under various open skies, my new <Sun Fabric> works even indoors and in caves,” he stated proudly.

“Oh, how so?” Seth asked to prompt the tailor to continue his explanation.

“You could say it's only possible because you forced me to level up. When I reached lv.90 I managed to learn the spell “Solar Beam”, an exclusive magic of the Tailor of Ivice class. The spell collects sunlight to build up strength and then fires it in a concentrated beam.

With this spell, I was able to create a threat that collects and stores sunlight. You already have the sun shirt, cloud pants, and the sky robe who all work under the open sky, but lose their best effects in places without an open sky. This thread made from Ivice's magic, woven into a fabric together with the <Sky Silk> can simulate an open sky, guaranteeing at least 50% of the buffs, even in places like caves,” Neeco said excitedly. However, Seth felt like there was a catch.

“Didn't you just say the spell absorbed and stores sunlight? Doesn't that mean the threat would also have to absorb sunlight to guarantee the effect?” Wouldn't it lose effectiveness after spending a longer time in a cave or a dungeon?”

“As expected, you saw right through the only flaw, but it's still better than the pure sky silk products that lose most of their function depending on the environment, right?”

The blacksmith had to admit, that having at least some of the effect for a while was better than having nothing. Taking into account that the skyrobe alone had doubled its defense, doubled his magic damage, added 40 points to all his attributes, and increased his resource regeneration by 45% as long as he was under the open sky. Even if all of that was cut in half, it was tremendous for something he simply wore below his armor and the golden fleece.

“What rank is this suit?” Seth asked interested.

“It's relic-rated. Puffles mentioned it could be legendary if Ivice wasn't a dead god.” Neeco said a little depressed.

“I see, it looks good, make me one, too. I think I have an idea of how we could make that effect of the <Sun Fabric> permanent. But can you darken them again, for me? This blue gold doesn't really fit my armor.”

Of course, Seth was thinking of infusing a soul into these two pieces of clothing. With the improvements of his <Soul Infusion> and his class advancement in the direction of a Maestro, Seth felt confident in being able to infuse a soul even in actual fabrics.

The only reason he had not done so with the three pieces he already wore, was simply that he never had the time, and he always knew they were only temporary items. Now that Neeco had become a master, his skill growth would slow down, just like Seth's.

Now the question of embedding souls into the undershirt and pants of his armor was worth considering. To power the solar beam threat, Seth thought of getting souls that had an affinity with light, or maybe something that connected them with the Sun by nature.

During his research, he had read of a lot of materials and creatures with a connection to the sun, most prominently the phoenix. However, asking Tano'Mol for a phoenix soul was probably too much, Taking into account that phoenixes were on a similar level as dragon, a phoenix was probably at least close to being a legend, if not legendary from birth.

But he had also read of different less prominent beasts like the Solar Stag, Day Lion, or the Sunwing that had connections to light, sun, and fire powers. The question was where to find them.

Another option was the dungeon where he met Solar Solace and captured Angelique. It probably was not the only dungeon of that civilization, maybe there was one more Sun Themed and less Twilight-themed he could find? Seth was still waiting for a message from Solar Solace and currently had no way to contact him on his own.

Also, if he wanted to improve all the new sun suits for the Field Teams and the Oathguard, he would need a reliable source for souls that would at least work correctly. All creatures that immediately came to his mind were strong and hard to find. Their materials were also at least epic-rated.

“Of course, I can dye your pair whatever color you like and send it over once it's finished,” Neeco said, happy that Seth acknowledged his work.

“Thanks, Neeco. I heard you already gave one to Mike?”

“Yeah, because he wanted to leave as soon as possible. It takes a while to make these.”

“I see, well done. Then I will leave you to your work now.”

Seth said his farewells and teleported back to his workshop. Seth had to give a thought to Mike's weapon. He didn't want to just give him to just take an Oathguard sword or a weapon from the treasury, which had already collected an impressive collection of epic and some relic-rated weapons that came from dungeons.

A sword that would resemble Mike's original sword... when he thought about making a new fire sword, Seth thought of White Hilt, the enchantment he had created with the help of Fin's luck and using the Basic Automaton Core Circuit as the base. Now Seth had managed to comprehend the Generic Automaton Core Circuit of Hephaestus. Maybe he would be able to upgrade the original White Hilt Enchantment a little.

It was a shame he only had epic-rated <Olympian Silver> left, but it was the best option for now. Seth drafted a new blueprint using <Blueprint> and went to have lunch. When he finished his break, he began his work. He wanted to be finished early and get back to Fin and Mina.