Chương 1405: 1404. Skull Shield

One thing that Seth had kept in the back of his mind was the wealth of dragon materials of Tydis, the Sky Dragon. Although not all of them were legendary, all the materials Al'Zalsar brought back were at least relics. It always gnawed on him in the back of his mind that the most they could do with them was to use them like any other relic-rated material and make a relic-rated item out of them. Seth didn't have the point to upgrade them, but he also didn't want them to collect dust until he reached legendary status.

He could have used a legendary enchantment to push past the hurdle, but that just wasn't it. He felt like materials this special deserved better. It sparked when he created the Hide of the False God. An item created with the synergy of his trait. Dragons or dragon-like beasts were neither rare nor common in Olympian Mythology. Sometimes they were an evil menace, but often they were shown as protectors or serving a god, or both. Python was a good example, originally protecting a place of oracles and serving Hera.

And like Python, many dragons died in the performance of their duty. His trait "Olympian Myths" had a strong connection to Hades, a slightly lesser one to Hephaestus, a moderate one to Persephone, and a slight one to Apollo and Eos. These gave him a chance to create items either connected to their myths or their domains.

Previous successes to trigger the trait, Python for example, made him believe that items could also gain connections to anything that famously died and ended up in Hades, thanks to his connection to Hades and, more recently, Persephone. His thought process was simple. Since he had a small abundance of dragon material, it seemed natural to try and create items based on those, to get a trait synergy. That way, even if they were not directly legends, they would be very special items.

And there was another itch he wanted to scratch. Despite forging items with magical powers, Seth had rarely created something that was visually striking someone as being impossible to create without magic. For that, Seth had brought out the Skull of Tydis, the Dark-blue Sky Dragon, and placed it in his wide hangar. The skull was huge, big enough to swallow a man whole. Funny enough, it was smaller than Python's was, but size didn't really matter when it came to legend. Still, it would do the trick.

Tored and Wedan had already played around with the relic-rated bones, so he knew their effects. The item made from the bones had a high durability and magic defense. The material possessed a 30% Impact Absorption effect and 20% Magic Absorption. The bones were a great material for armor, or in this case, a shield. Seth intended to turn the massive skull into a kite shield. Like the horn of the Rhino of Destruction, the skull was too big to be worked on the anvil.

Fortunately, he didn't need the forge for this one; Charon's Obol was enough. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Before he began, he placed the teeth to the side for later. It was sad for the others who had looked forward to experimenting with dragon teeth, but the blacksmith would need half of them later on. The others would have to deal with it, that they only had 25 of the upper jaw to play with. Then it was time to start.

Oz, to the side, started playing his tune as the blacksmith's voice echoed in the hangar. The song was one he had rarely used. The first and last time was when he created the jewelry for Jonah. It was the Ballad of the Anima Well that could turn any object into a container for mana or life force. This way, the shield would make effective use of its Magic Absorption. His hammer in hand, he started circulating his mana and striking the skull.

The energy infusing into the porous bone structure softened the material and made it more malleable with every strike. Soon, the blacksmith was able to start shaping the skull. With his strikes, he not only shaped the bones like red-hot metal, but he also condensed them, turning them more solid. Under the influences of the hammer strikes, as well as <Reinforcement> and the refining properties of Charon's Obol, the skulls started shrinking, becoming stronger and firmer in the process.

Seth was not picky with his methods. What he didn't need was cut away instead of wasting time on refining it. The parts he didn't need were put aside for the others, in case they needed something like a dragon rami. Inspired by his idea, he sang and struck, slowly and evenly reducing its size, as well as flattening it. In the next couple of hours day turned to night, and the massive dragon skull had taken the shape and size of a great kite shield that could cover a grown man.

Things went smoothly, exactly as the blacksmith had hoped. The only disturbance was the sudden call when he was in the middle of forging. He belatedly realized how late it had gotten and that he had even distracted himself from the regular call with Mina and Fin. Despite being bothered and distracted, he managed to finish the base shield successfully. When he could finally put the hammer aside, he hurriedly brought out his communication orb to call them back; however, nobody answered for a while.

"Seth..? Didn't you say you were going to take a break until we come back?" Mina's sleepy voice answered the call. She didn't even have to ask whether he was crafting until late at night; she simply knew.

"Sorry, I had to distract myself. It's getting lonely without you here," he admitted with a tired voice. Forging the skull like this had taken most of his energy.

"Same, I miss you, too. I talked with Fin, and we are considering dropping out of the mission and just staying home after the Welcome Party," the cat girl revealed their intention, making his heart race. Hearing that they intended to stay back made him happy, but..

"Is that really what you want?" The blacksmith asked. The two had really looked forward to getting back on a mission. Although he would be happy, he didn't want them to come thinking they were missing out on something." We wanted to go on a mission to raise our level of existence, but all we did was so far was sit and move around this damp forest and fight some mob once in a while when we are bored enough. We barely even get to test our new item," Mina listed her complaints, calming his worries.

"Honestly, I'm glad you are getting out of that forest," Seth said with some relief. They talked a little while longer about the past day and what they would do after the party. Seth told her about Paolo and his potential powers, as well as his own project he started to distract himself. They talked until they were both too tired to keep going and ended the call. The tired blacksmith finally appeared in his quarters and fell asleep on the bed, without even the chance to change his clothes.