Despite being vague about the reason for a room, Seth was easily able to secure a place to work. It was an old Titan Hangar within the walls of the fort. Apparently, the number of Titans stationed here had been reduced over the past years as less dangerous beasts emerged from the demon cave at a lower frequency.
It was a wide hall that reminded Seth more of the age of the Industrial Revolution than the Middle Ages. The walls, coursed from massive sandstone blocks, were covered in rags where the Titans would have been put for storage, maintenance, or repair.
The place was interesting and gave off the flair of a lost place. The amount of spiderwebs suggested that this place had not been cleaned for quite some time, either. Maybe it was a little big, but it was just the right place apart from that.
Having approved of the location, Seth started summoning his furnace and anvil. Seth didn't need any more for the time being. Before he could start, he set up a small barrier using pieces Rún had enchanted for him.
Although the forging ballad of damage negation didn't have any noticeable side effects when listened to, it was better to be safe than sorry. Once the soundproof barrier was set up, he was ready to begin.
It was noon when they arrived at the fort. After the welcome and briefing, it was now late noon. The blacksmith surmised that it was enough time to forge the gauntlets until evening. He would then take care of enchantments and the soul armaments at a later time.
"Are you already starting?" Monique stuck her head through the door. The heads of Mina and Fin followed. Their eyes wandered across the vast hall before returning to Seth.
"We said we wanted to watch! Why did you just leave without telling us?" Fin asked indignantly
"Sorry, I forgot," the blacksmith said, embarrassed, but they couldn't hear him, since he was inside the barrier that didn't let out any sound. Looking at their puzzled faces, he quickly realized his mistake and stepped out.
"I just wanted to set up everything before calling you," he announced his reworked answer. "You should watch from over there and not step into the barrier. If you do, you will be influenced by the demonic ballad," he explained.
"Would that be bad?" Monique asked, curious about the side effects.
"On this one? Not really, but in general...potentially harmful, yes," he answered vaguely. Since they were forging ballads in nature and not offensive music, most ballads had no lasting effects, but the effects they could have on listeners while being sung were not enjoyable.
"Any more questions? Since everyone is already here, I'm going to begin," the blacksmith announced, as Charon's Obol appeared in his hand. He walked to the furnace, burning with its pale blue flame, and placed four ingots of
The girls watched Seth, keeping one ingot in his hand, and the metal quickly turning red hot under the blacksmith's power. The demon lyre Oz appeared beside him, and its strings started plucking themselves in silence.
While the other ingots in the furnace heated up, Seth grasped the one in his hand with a pair of tongs. In silence, the hammer started falling, changing the shape of the ingot, and the blacksmith's mouth started moving.
No sound left the barrier, making the scene surreal, like watching a muted video, but it was real life. Shortly after his mouth started contorting with silent sounds, dark runes began appearing in the air, close to his mouth.
They sank down toward the metal, leaving traces of dark vapor. They landed on the metal and were worked into it with every practiced hammer strike of the Tower Master. As he continued working, other tool had their cameos to cut, part, or punch the metal bands and sheets he was forging.
The women watched in fascination. They all had witnessed Seth work at some point, but they had never seen the whole process as it was now. Even Fin, who had probably seen him work the most on their joint journey, had never seen the blacksmith use his bardic power in the forging process.
The sight of the demonic runes appearing and fusing into the metal in harmony with the blacksmith's rhythmic strikes had something almost hypnotic. It was a deeply calming sight to simply see someone move with absolute precision and confidence.
Especially Monique grew a new appreciation for the work of blacksmiths. As someone coming from a martial background, who had learned body control and precision from a young age, seeing that other professions did exactly the same, but for a completely different purpose, widened her own horizon just a little.
As they watched the blacksmith work, they saw the full transformation of the five ingots of silvery metal into bigger and finer armor plates. With the constant infusion of demonic runes, the metal had gained the same dark luster as the rest of the armor.
The smaller and finer plates found their places along the leather gloves Seth had brought out at some point. Welded to the glove using his weird techniques, or riveted together, creating articulate joints, they became a pair of intricate plate gauntlets.
Attached to the wrist came the bigger plates, shaping the vembrace that would protect the lower arm. Their designs mirrored the look of the armor boots she was already wearing, showing a stylized owl design.
By the time the blacksmith put aside his tools, the five silver ingots had turned into a pair of beautiful, polished gauntlets displaying a dark silver luster with a hint of gold. The sudden stasis on the anvil dispelled the rapture, and the three witnesses finally realized how much time had actually passed as they watched the gauntlets unfold.
As Seth had estimated, it had become evening when he finished the pair of gauntlets. He dismantled the soundproof barrier after setting the gloves aside on the anvil. The moment it was gone, he heard Monqiue.
"H-How did it go?" She asked, flustered for some reason.
"I would say it went quite well." The blacksmith answered, unsure what exactly she meant.
Seth had used a similar design to the one used for the Dread Gauntlets of Feanys. Monique's gauntlets had fine scales running up the fingers, which he had welded to the leather using Charon's Obol's power and
The hand was covered in jointed plates that transitioned over the wrist into the vembrace, which connected to the elbow piece of the spaulders. It was no extraordinary design, but it looked quite good, if he said so himself, and it was functional.
If he had to point out a difference, it was the effects that had manifested this time. The expected 50% increase in the power of skills and magic was not there this time. Instead both gauntlets shared an effect called Dexterity of Athena, one of the main properties of the goddess.
Dexterity was usually seen as the attribute of a craftsman. Athena was, in fact, also a goddess of handicrafts. However, this was the
Dexterity of Athena was not about handicrafts in this case. This was about the dexterity needed in combat, when fighting and using weapons. The effect raised the multipliers for attack speed by 30% and Dexterity itself by 75 points. In addition to this new effect, the right gauntlet improved the power of sword attacks by 50% while the left gauntlet doubled the Power of Shield Arts.
"Although the improvement of sword damage is not really helpful to you, I think it is good in case you ever have to use one," Seth ended his explanation of the current state of the gauntlets. They still lacked their enchantments and souls, but 60% increase in base attack speed, +150 dexterity, and double the power of shield arts was already quite good.
"I already love them, thank you!" Monique said, her eyes locked onto the gauntlets she had tried on. Seth had the feeling she had not listened to him at all. On the other hand, he was happy to see her so infatuated with his work.
"I'm glad you like it-"
"Yeah, yeah. Enough talking. Let's get back to our room," Mina interrupted him. He looked at her in surprise, immediately noticing that special glint in her eyes.
"Yes, let's get back."