CHAPTER 1377: SPEED AND STRENGTH

Puffles still didn't answer his calls, but Ceres picked up his communication orb. The Parrot of Doom spoke for both of them. The two were still in the vicinity of Thres, so it was no problem for them to wait for the reinforcement to arrive.

With that out of the way, Seth got the chance to focus on his own responsibilities. He had put some time into planning out the armor for Faenys, even slightly changing the design, to make it more imposing. It was not just magic that could play into an intimidation effect.

Apart from that, he had spent his time mostly researching and practicing ballads that could grant passive effects, which were related to speed and strength. The blacksmith intended to cover them, especially speed, mostly using the forging ballads.

With everything planned out, he started with the leg armor. he would have liked to start with the boots, but he left making the boots of wing leather to Nädel, who had recently finished Mina's equipment and became a master.

The ballad was created by a demon poet who called himself Consent, if the blacksmith translated the name loosely. With the name “Fast like Akheilos!” it called upon a maritime demon, who specialized in speed and ambushes.

For the leg armor, he brought out one of the large dragon scales. Seth loosened his shoulders and signaled Cerberus to come help him. Like when he made the gauntlets for Bart, he needed to start off by preparing his material sheets. Then he could continue forging the leg armor.

Although they were not as resilient as the ancient scales he used for the scorpion armor, the were a little tough. To save time and energy, he was going to have Cerberus support him in forging the legendary materials.

As energy started circulating through his trusty hammer, Oz suddenly started playing a weird, ethereal music. But just for a moment! The demon lyre started torturing his chords, and a demonic tune shook the workshop, followed by the beat of the hammer and Seth's unholy wail.

Brimming with power, Charon's Obol and Cerberus' Fists started pummeling the thick scale on the anvil. With every strike, magic force sank into the dragon scale, and with every word, demonic runes started floating around him.

Unfortunately, the recent call had muddles his thoughts a little and Seth forgot one important step in the preparation of the forging ballad. he forgot to check whether the door of the workshop was properly closed, thus the music traveled unbeknownst to the blacksmith.

...

A wail sounded through the hall of Minas Mar. In terror, Wedan and Hoen realized that the blacksmith had forgotten to seal his door again. They quickly put their tools aside, as the demonic ballad weakened their legs and drilled into their brains.

It was a fast cacophony, led by the strikes of the hammer. The workshop seemed to dark, as if the fires and furnaces had fallen silent. Following the wail and the music, a demonic voice snuck into their ears and ran a cold shower down their spines.

“You better beware. You better take care...” it cautioned them ominously. “The time has come, and he's the one who's breathing down your neck! Coming from behind-” Wedan jumped around, looking behind him. For a moment, he was convinced someone was behind him.

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“Calm down, Wedan. It's just-,” Hoen tried to calm him. Even if the forging ballads sometimes caused visions, they were not actually dangerous. However, he was interrupted by the demonic bard's unholy song.

“Fast as a shark, he'll cut out of the dark, he's a killer, he'll rip out your heart!”

“Shit!” Hoen cursed and jumped under a workbench for cover, when he thought to see a shadow figure strike for his chest. For a moment, he was sure he had been hit, but when he grabbed at his chest to cover the wound, there was nothing.

“- It's just vision, nothing dangerous,” he finished his sentence and cleared his throat. He was slightly embarrassed.

“Surprise attack! Coming from the back! An expert of the deadly knack~” The moment they heard it, the dwarves stood back to back, staring into the darkness. Knowing something wasn't dangerous didn't mean they were not tense.

Cold sweat covered their body when the demonic bard cautioned them again to be careful, shortly before shadowy silhouettes kept appearing from the darkness, trying to attack them. The two shared a glance. This couldn't go on like this.

They knew that Seth was working on the Sky Dragon Armor design for Faenys. The fact that he started to sing meant he had begun to forge it. This music could potentially go on for hours. Could they endure this until then?

Not needing to articulate their thoughts, they understood each other with that one glance and nodded. Together, they slowly made their way toward the door of their workshop, laboriously resisting the side effects of the demonic forging ballad by supporting one another.

Sweating and panting, their eyes bloodshot, the two dwarves made it out and onto the hallway outside. As if fighting against a storm, the two were forced to almost crawl across the stone floor between their door to their workshop and that of Seth, which was a small distance further down the hallway.

Tortured by the constant jump scares, they finally made it to the door, which was just slightly ajar. If it wasn't for the mind-disrupting music echoing through the hallways and their skulls, it would have looked shut, and nobody would have noticed.

With Wedan supporting his back, Hoen made it past the few meters. He managed to grasp the door handle and eventually pull the door shut. The moment it properly closed, a magic formation lit up across the dark wood of the workshop door, completing the sound seal.

Finally, silence. The two dwarfs sank to the ground, leaning against the wall right beside the door. Not a single note made it out of the workshop anymore, and the dark visions and feeling of threat vanished. Breathing heavily, they had to take a moment to recover.

“Good work.” “Well done,” the two blacksmiths congratulated each other when they could speak again and shook hands, and that was it. Once strength returned to their legs, the dwarves got up and walked back to their workshop.

“D-Did you manage to close the door?” Liam, the arcane blacksmith who had been recruited together with Neill Repmore, asked. He had only managed to leave his workshop after the music had stopped.

“Yep, no need to thank us,” Hoen waved off.

“Still, maybe we should talk to the Tower Master about this later,” Liam suggested. Although it didn't happen often, Seth did forget to properly close his door sometimes.

“Nah, leave him alone with such nullities. Seth already has enough to do as is. This isn't bad enough to bother him with. It's not like we would have died,” Wedan said with a shrug. It had only been a few minutes, but the dwarves had already mostly recovered. In the end, it were just visions and stress.

“What happened to the music?” Neill Repmore joined them belatedly. However, he seemed fine. Unlike them, who looked like they were put through the wringer, he just looked sweaty from hard work.

“We managed to close the door, no need to thank us,” Wedan said; however, Neill looked for disappointed than thankful.

“Could we open it a little again? I just got into the groove ...” the indomitable blacksmith honored his name. It seemed that he had been barely bothered by the music, and even liked it. Maybe they all had to raise their mental resistance.

Seeing Neill not bothered at all, Liam agreed not to mention this matter to Seth. Maybe it was a nullity, and it was he who had to improve...