Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Gleobem and Oz joined him in a funky tune. The formation started glowing mysteriously.

"Mana veins and cores and dance, Bits and pieces and the magic from the hand.

Will make- weird saints, ooh ~"

The whole valley shook under the wild music, as Seth played the Devil's Fiddle and sang life into the saint's body.

"Weird Saints, Not what god asked me to do, Makin' dreams come true, living tissue, warm flesh Weird Saints, ooh~"

At first not much happened as Seth serenaded the lifeless body standing in the middle of the formation, but soon it seemed like the juices started flowing back into Samuel's old body. This meant that the ego had awakened and was reforming its shell to its wishes.

What looked like a mummy of desiccated old man, rapidly grew younger and soon gained the features of a handsome man in his thirties, if one ignored Seth's augmentations. In addition, a mane of silver hair sprouted from the desolate plane that was the old man's scalp.

"Magic and technology, fragmented souls and chants, electricity, We're makin' weird saints. Fantasy and golem cores, Shooting from the fingertips, something different. We're making weird saints, ooh~"

The man's eyelids started fluttering and it became obvious that it was close to awakening when a bright light suddenly shone down on his creation. This did not originate from anything Seth did but was divine intervention.

Seth had already expected something like this. There was no way Seth was able to bring Samuel back, what he was creating was a bad copy. This changed if the System God himself decided to intervene in the process. Like the revival through the Dungeon God, or priests, gods had ways to restore a person's ego.

"My creation, is it real? Is it my creation? I do not know. Ooh, no hesitation, is it real?"

Slowly the song came to an end and the divine light dimmed. What was revealed when the bard fell silent and the god left, looked a lot like a younger version of Samuel, but the deus ex machina had not removed Seth's augmentations.

Proudly he looked at Samuel, the new saint of the System God as he slowly opened his eyes. His young handsome face was decorated by a row of eyebrow piercings, a nose piercing, and a lip piercing. On his forehead, two elegant horns pointed towards the sky. His ears were not spared from various earrings.

Simply said, the System God's Saint looked like an indestructible punk, and it seemed like the looks had the system god's approval, since it was not changed and Seth got the notification that he had successfully finished the quest.

<Ding! You have successfully accomplished the Quest: Saint Creation. Rewards will be given.>

<Ding! Your Level of Existence has risen to 1!>

<Ding! You have received the Mark of the System God!>

<Ding! In the future, you will gain Power of Existence 5% easier across the multiverse.>

<Ding! You have received System God's Septum Ring as an additional reward.>

<Ding! You have received the Title: “Body Modification Artist” Body Modifications done by you will have a 15% higher output when worn.>

<Ding! Your title “Divine Creator” has strengthened."You have managed to create an entity that possesses divinity" +10%->15% to all stats of your autonomous creations. +5%->10 to all your Attributes>

The rewards were ambiguous. Since the marks lacked explanations, he could only try to find the differences. The only visible effect of the mark was that he had gained another ten inventory slots, making it 110, instead of 100. He would have to look deeper into it to see whether anything really changed.

He didn't quite know how valuable the 5% increased PoE gain was since he had little experience with this new system itself, however, he was quite happy about it LoE directly increasing to one. As for the items and the title...

The Septum Ring was a big thick ring of <Divine Arpegium>, resembling what a bull would wear in a cartoon. Despite its looks, the effects could make it a holy item of the system church. An additional 25 item slots, another pet space, 50% additional experience, and a skill called <Systematic Defense> which negated damage from system-aided skills for one minute...

It was an overwhelmingly good item... for someone else. Although Seth was a sympathizer of “Function over looks” in games, it didn't mean he had the same sentiment in reality. The biggest function of the ring was the additional experience, but as far as he knew, Seth didn't need experience anymore...and he didn't want to wear this cartoonishly large septum ring on his nose...

Since he had brought him relic-rated crystal shards earlier, the blacksmith decided that Evan deserved a reward for all of his hard work. He would bestow this overwhelming item onto the chosen of Hermes' husbandry, which seemed fitting. Since Evan had been holding back on dungeon raids because breeding and raising monsters took a lot of time, the item would help him catch up, too.

Yes, he was such a magnanimous leader. If he put it on Evan, it would even have 15% better output.

“Seth?” the new saint had opened his eyes, and mentioned his name, as he was looking around with a confused look on his face.

“Oh, Samuel? Is it really you?” Seth asked a little embarrassed. He had almost forgotten about the man while he was checking his rewards. With the intervention of the system god, the chance that it was really Samuel who was completely restored was high, but you never knew.

“Seth, what happened? I remember fighting that guy in Y-City and...dying. Was I revived? But what is this place?” he asked, referring to the crumbling and broken valley, surrounded by the shards of mountains.

“I guess saying you have been revived would not be wrong, but also not completely right? They couldn't revive you right after your death because your soul was already gone.”

“M-My soul was gone, but then how am I here?” he asked perplexed. The way he reacted and spoke was no different from the original Samuel. As a head priest of the System God, he knew a thing or two about the revival of the dead through divine intervention. But when his soul was gone, it would have been impossible.

“Don't ask me that. I have no idea how the System God got your soul back. I was just given a forced quest to revive you as the new saint of the System Church, together with materials and the broken pile of fragments, I had to piece together like a puzzle.”

“The new saint?!” Samuel ignored Seth's complaints and looked himself up and down. He still wore the robe that was put on him for his funeral, but his body had grown visibly younger and more muscular.

His hands wandered over his face, exploring the many rings and piercings before finally reaching the long and elegant Arpegium Horns.

“Dafuq did you do to me!?” he finally exclaimed in shock.

“I made you a saint of the System God. When the divine light fell on you, he didn't change my work, which I count as tacit approval,” Seth answered with a chuckle and handed Samuel a mirror.

The man's eyes widened when he saw his reflection, then they squinted. He pursed his lips a little and adjusted his new, full hair.

“I'm actually quite handsome, aren't I? These piercings actually give me an adventurous look... the horns will be annoying when going through doors, but they actually don't look that bad...” he heard him mumbling to himself as he quickly grew to like his new looks better than his old ones. As expected since the shell was largely customized by the soul's desires.

An obvious side glance, followed by his eyes widening indicated that Samuel had also checked his status. Seth knew that his stats had been similar to Wolfram's before he sang an ego into the body and the System God intervened. His new body should have been quite a bit more powerful than his old one.

“Oh, here's your staff back, too.” the blacksmith suddenly remembered and handed the man his weapon. Now he really gave the impression of a saint, kind of, a weird saint.

They talked for a while longer to help Samuel understand the current situation.

“Then, I think I should return to Y-City now,” he finally said and struck a pose. A few moments passed.

“Errm, Home Call didn't work. Can you...tell me the way to get back?” he asked embarrassed.

“...I will give you a ride back to Delta.”

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