Chapter 1429 - 1428. No pteruges

Since testing the boots was out of question, Seth directly transitioned into the next pieces of the armor. He was now only missing the pauldrons and the gauntlets. of these, the pauldrons were first, so he could customize their connection with the gauntlets.

Although the blacksmith had taken a lot of inspiration from antiquity and mythology, the pauldrons were one of the pieces that were more like those of modern knights. Although a linothorax often had shoulder protection and sometimes pteruges, there was nothing comparable to the plate pauldrons Seth was making.

He intended for the gauntlets to pick up the design on the boots, but Monique would be wearing full plate arm armor. Although the elbow was often a separate piece in history, in the context of the system, it was part of the pauldrons since the system only had a shoulder slot. The evolution of armor was similar to the move to armor boots, because there was only one slot for the feet and lower leg.

As for the design of the pauldrons, Seth chose a more muted design close to some traditional armors among his blueprints. Actually, was the blacksmith intended to make something closer to spaulders than pauldrons?

They followed the look of Skin of Athena and were more practical in this particular situation, considering the Aegis. Basically, they were made up of a smooth plate that covered the shoulder and a stream of segmented armor plates running down the arm to the elbow piece that would connect to the gauntlet.

The pauldrons would directly attach to the shoulder of the chain shirt. Seth had decided against a gorget during the design stage because it would have gotten in the way of the Aegis' functions to transform into either a cloak or a breastplate. With this design, however, the pauldrons would not get in the way, no matter how the Aegis transformed.

Under the heat of the pale blue spirit fire, the bard's song, and the skills of the blacksmith, several ingots of the silver metal with its golden hue quickly turned into a pair of smooth, articulate spaulders. Seth evaded using leather and used sliding rivets instead to forgo stretching and wear.

The next step was the enchantments. This time, there was no need to change them because of the effects of the material. Both spaulders raised the power of skills and magic by 50%. The right doubled the power of spear skills, while the left held the effect Wings of the Owl.

Wings of the Owl lowered the user's presence by 50% and doubled their speed in the darkness and the night. Very fitting for the name. He didn't quite know why they were different this time, but he didn't mind. Neither affected the planned enchantments, so he was good.

Seth decided to have the shoulders focus on improving Monique's strength, so he engraved both with Minor Olympian Strength, covering the smooth silver spaulders and elbow caps in intricate engravings, making them look expensive and luxurious.

After a quick break, he jumped to the next step. The souls he chose for the shoulders were for the left and the for the right. The first was concentrated on all passive skills that could raise strength and physical attack power, and came with three passive skills.

There was , which raised the attack power of non-skill physical attacks by 25%. The second was , raising strength by 20% in combat. The third was , raising the Strength Attribute by 10 for every ten levels of the player.

The best of the three, in Seth's opinion, was . Although it had less use to someone on lower levels since its power was dependent on the base value of the attribute, it was powerful for someone like Monique, who was already past level 100 and focused her attributes on strength and agility.

combined all the active skills of the same elements; this was probably where the name came from. This one had a trait and two skills. "Berserker's Blood Rush" was a trait with two effects. Passively, it raised strength by10% when armed and gave a passive skill of the same name

stacked an additional 10 Strength for every armed attack that hit. Each instance of a stack lasted 60 seconds. This meant the user had 60 seconds to stack up as much strength as they could. How much they could get depended on their attack speed and ability to hit their target.

The two skills of the soul were and . The first was a typical iteration of skills that momentarily raise attack power when attacking. The bonus of 500% attack power on the next strike was the only thing slightly above average. The second was another passive skill that raised the power of all skills performed with a weapon by 15%.

Of the effect of the second soul, Seth especially liked the trait. The only thing he found a little missing was the power that made a berserker a berserker. They were supposed to grow stronger the lower their health was and receive some kind of healing or life steal effect to stay in that state. It was probably missing because this was just the rush and not the full class.

Although he had started the day off by finishing the boots, there were no interruptions or unforeseen circumstances today, so the blacksmith blazed through the production and could start with the enchanting of the soul armaments.

For the left shoulder, he followed his idea of doubling down on Olympian enchantments, engraving the soul armament with Minor Olympian Strength. On the soul of the right shoulder, he chose one of the lv.3 enchantments he could only use once per load-out.

Inspired by the name of the soul, he enchanted it with Basic Olympian Healing, an enchantment that raised the multiplier of health Regeneration per Endurance and the basic Health Regeneration by 50%. Originally, he had intended to maybe place it on a ring or necklace at a later point, when Monique decided to update her accessories.

However, having special like this for the armor, almost necessitated that he used the better ones on it, rather than keep them back for other items Monique may wear. He had been arguing with himself before and decided spontaneously, since had had already dropped the idea of doubling down on the enchantments in other places.

Since it was the soul armament, he wouldn't have to worry about a visual difference either. Basic Olympian Healing, like most of the basic ones, was a little more intricate than the minor ones and would have looked very different if engraved on the silver.

With the decision made, Seth managed to finish the soul armaments in the late evening, staying on schedule despite starting later and finishing the boots first. As the day neared its end, he infused the souls into the spaulders and dunked the spaulders into the Water of Styx.

x2

The blacksmith barely had a chance to hear the notifications when they were overshadowed by a sudden shout that echoed in the workshop.

" I GOT IT! WE GOT IT!" she shouted as she kicked open the door, visibly overjoyed. Seth was puzzled for a moment, but there was only one thing Monique would be this excited about.

"You got the location of a gorgon?" he asked, carefully playing the spaulders on the closest workbench.

"Yes! Our contact in Gula finally responded. Snakes for hair, ugly mug, turn people into stone with a look- It's totally our target," the Chosen of Athena explained. Her words kept getting jumbled because she spoke so fast. It was hard to understand, but Seth caught the important bits..

"Okay, okay, I get. We have a proper lead. Let's calm down and talk in detail."