Chương 1356: 1355. As thick as his thumb

With the Set of Beashaz finished, all that was left for Seth was to wait for Nädel and Rún to finish Mina's Set. Then he could hand their new equipment to the both of them. In the meantime, Seth spent his time on planning the engagement dinner while his primary focus was supposed to return to the Sky Dragon Armor. The plans and blueprints for the set had been pretty much finished during their Meeting of Masters.

However, Seth didn't know how long exactly Nädel would need and didn't want to start on making the first set just yet. That didn't mean there was nothing he could do now. The full set was not the only thing coming from their meeting. In case someone already had legendary equipment and wouldn't be able to equip a full set, Seth saved a bunch of designs of individual pieces he could make for those. Even if they couldn't wear a full set, customized pieces would not fall behind.

There were a few candidates that would be unable to don a full set like the one they were designing, Bart, the Chosen of Krios, for example, who wore the Ram Helmet originally made for Mike. Since the helmet of Krios had technically become his holy armament, he wouldn't be able to wear a complete set. This was why Seth decided to take a small portion of the materials and gather some experience working with the dragon materials.

He intended to make a pair of gauntlets, similar to ones proposed by Tored during the meeting. He chose to make a pair of gloves because Bart was still using the Schooling Gloves that Mike originally wore. That pair of gloves was designed to work together with Mike's original Flaming Fury sword, raising Swordsmanship, sword damage, and magic damage cast through a sword.

Although he wasn't a very proficient fighter with the sword, things were okay as long as he used the flaming sword and gloves together, but Bart had long since switched to the Axe of Ignoramus, which he had received after the Battle of Delta. His equipment was no longer fitting his skills, and he couldn't receive a full set because of his helmet. Bart was a prime example of someone who needed to get smaller sets or individual items, such as the pair of gauntlets.

The base design was a shorter traditional mitten design that protected the hand in an articulated shell, instead of individual fingers. They had decided against this design for the final armor because a caster usually needed their finger for gestures. The blacksmith would forge the armor plating from the legendary dragon scales, while the gloves inside would use the relic-rated wing leather. While the scales had a better defense, the wing leather actually had a slightly higher mana conductivity.

This was something Tored brought up when he suggested this design during the meeting. Not only would it enhance the transmission of magic power between the weapon and the user for skills and spells, but it could also save them some work, as it was simpler than an articulated finger. Unless the user would need to be able to articulate their hand in combat, of course. Without hesitation, Seth brought out one of the Sky Dragon Heart Scales and placed it on the anvil.

It was about the size of a big dish with the typical shape of a scale as rough and as thick as the blacksmith's thumb. Despite the size, it was not remarkably heavy. Bringing out his trusty hammer, Seth began circulating his energy and striking the scale with Charon's Obol. Although the hammer itself had the power to forge anything, he had developed the habit to also use <Energy Circulation (3)> to quicken the process and work with more ease.

Before he could start the proper forging, Seth had to prepare the material. He forged the scale into a rough square with even thickness. It resembled the way it felt when he forged his scorpion armor, but he could feel that there was a lot less resistance in the scale when he hit it, than when he forged the scales of the ancient dragon. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. When the square was done, Seth split it in half.

There were only 20 heart scales, but using this design allowed Seth to make both gauntlets from just half a scale. Placing one half on the side for another project, the blacksmith split the remaining one in half once again. One quarter for each gauntlet. It was a small price to pay to get to know the concrete effects and a feel of working with the material in preparation for making a whole set from it. Now that he had his materials ready, Seth could start the actual crafting process.

Since the pair was not going to interact with a greater set, Seth could go wild with the enchantments he envisioned to fit Bart the best. The former axe warrior was the typical off-tank reliant on high-attack power and moderate tankiness. Becoming the Chosen of Krios had only increased this tendency, as it raised defense and physical attack. As far as Seth knew, Bart could also gain additional buffs. He got a general power-up in starlit nights and various buffs depending on the visible star signs.

One might think that the scales of a dragon specialized in magic were wasted on an almost purely physical warrior, but that was not necessarily true. Although Bart specialized in physical combat, it didn't mean he had no skills and powers that would benefit from the arcane buffs the Sky Dragon Heart Scales offered. Most importantly, the blacksmith had a way to turn it both ways. As the hammer struck the first quarter of the scale, a guttural growl filled the workshop.

It was a wild and savage cacophony that had Sivri's metal plating shiver. To the beat of the hammer, metal grinding melodies rose from the forge. The bard knew just the right kind of ballad. A popular genre of demonic ballads was songs that traded physical strength for magic power. Many demons were specialized in magic, but still had very strong bodies and basic attributes. However, a mage had no need for a strong body when they relied solely on their magic.

It was most popular with demons that possessed an especially strong affinity for magic. They would use items that traded their natural strength for even more magical power. Albeit smaller, there was also the contrary movement. Even Demons with next to no talent in magic were born with a moderately big pool of mana and magical potential. They also had little use for these naturally given gifts. They fought with their bodies instead.

As such, there also existed ballads that could trade magic power and mana for physical buffs. Either meant a trade-off between attributes, normally in the shape of a fixed debuff. This was one of those. A primitive and brutal noise, hardly eligible to be called music, it wasn't for the fact that it had your heart pumping faster as the beat hypnotized the listener into a rage-inducing trance. As one may expect, it was a ballad calling upon the grace of Andras, known for his primal rage in combat.

it was one of the highest demons that granted the "blessing" of exchanging magical power for physical strength. Seth already had some experience with the demon god, since he had used his power on one of Mina's rings, but he was glad that he didn't attract the demon's presence this time. Similar to the demonic spirits that lost their ego and became pure concepts, the bard got a more... automated response. Andras didn't have the time to listen to every iteration of these ballads.

As mentioned, they were popular and used often. Although this meant that Seth had not as much freedom in tweaking and negotiating the power of the skill, it didn't mean there was none. Seth paid his last remaining common souls and the smaller ones he got at the dragonnewt dungeon to allow manipulate the power and range of the demonic blessing that was slowly sinking into the dragon scale as he forged it into a big even sheet.

That would weigh heavily on his soul reserve, but fortunately, Tano'Mol was going to return soon, so he looked forward to his source of souls to refill. Until then, he had the souls of Pithra's entourage and minions. The souls of dragon newts were not a bad choice for the gauntlets. They all carried the trait called Draconic Heritage.

While it had fused into the trait Draconic Monk on Fin's set, the trait alone which raised the multipliers for physical damage and defense, as well as offering the effect of draconic intimidation. But before he could pay attention to the soul, he had to create the body. For mitten-style gauntlets, he needed various smaller plates that he would then process into articulated joints. Using the <Blueprint> skill, Seth was able to project templates into the sheet he just forged.

Using <Pyrokinesis> to the effect of a plasma cutter, Seth cut out the rough plates for the gauntlet before bending and forging them into shape. Despite not negating as much damage, the sky dragon scale still took a lot of effort and time to process. It was already past lunchtime when Seth reached the point where he could test assemble the two gloves. With that done, he decided to take a break and continue later.