Their return to Minas Mar was unspectacular. Nobody expected anything to happen, considering the members of the party involved. Leana asked him to visit her later, since she had an update from Ybsericht, but she told him it could wait.
Nobody tried to stop the blacksmith from taking the new materials straight to the workshop. Even Mina and Fin knew that there was no stopping him; it wasn't like they were tired, and it was currently morning in Delta.
After initially coming home, taking a little break, and being welcomed, the blacksmith went to the kitchen. Link was already waiting for him with a knowing smile. The Gourmet Hunter was still the most skilled dismantler in Minas Mar, and he was the only one Seth dared to leave her body to.
"Before I take her body out, you should probably drink this," the blacksmith cautioned and handed the chef a potion of Petrification Resistance. He also helped himself to a bottle; only then did he bring out the body of the gorgon from his inventory, placing it in the dismantling area of the kitchen.
"Skinning and taking the blood should be enough," the blacksmith said, while Link was still staring at the gorgon's jiggly parts. "Dude, get a grip. You have a girlfriend. Stop staring at the boobs of a dead monster," he scolded the hypnotized hunter. "Can I leave this to you?" he asked, a little doubtful.
"I was just joking around. Give me a couple of minutes, I will be done soon," Link said with a confident laugh and brought out his legendary chef's knife. The professional was not disturbed by the gorgon's human form; he had worked with a lot of humanoid monsters.
Although the hunter struggled a little to penetrate the golden scales, it seemed like their "impenetrable" defense had weakened, and the legendary knife was able to cut into her flesh once the gourmet hunter started using his skills.
Her body was hung up, and the head was completely cut off to release the blood. Link handed the head to Seth before continuing. It was the first time Seth got a good look at Phinene's mug, and it was as hideous as the legends said. Turning to stone upon this sight could be seen as a mercy.
Practiced hands and a terrifyingly sharp knife managed to free the gorgon from her scaly skin, which also found its way into the hands of the blacksmith soon. It was a shame that it was covered in cuts from the fight, but luckily, the "hide of the gorgon" he needed for the aegis didn't need to be in one big piece. There were enough materials for his needs.
It took a while longer for all the blood to leave the massive body, but once this was done, Seth was able to pack away one half-dismantled gorgon body and 5 bottles of blood. He thanked Link and promptly vanished into his workshop, where he started by re-summoning the crafting stations he used on the journey back in their places.
"You immediately coming here mean the journey was successful?" Sivri greeted him with a wry smile.
"Sure was, I have the body and soul of an almost legendary gorgon. We can start working on the Aegis right away," the blacksmith said with a wide smile. Seth had been studying the blueprint for the past days when he had time and was ready to begin.
As mentioned, the Aegis was a piece of equipment that could switch between a coat, a breast plate, and a shield. In ancient depictions, it was often shown as just one of the three or as a coat that could be used for this purpose.
However, the blueprint Seth had received at the start of the quest was different. It was a garment made of modular plates covered in the reptilian leather of the Gorgon. While the plates created the tessellated array, the gorgon hide closed the gaps, hid the underlying structure, and added additional defense.
These plates could rearrange themselves and completely turn into a breastplate, a shield, or a cloak, depending on the situation. Although the blacksmith couldn't quite understand the divine enchantments, he understood that there was even more to them.
For the quest, he was given the Sigil of Olympian Thunder and the Combat Support Automaton Ego Circuit, which were part of the Aegis Blueprint. However, looking at the design for so long, Seth was actually able to understand that these two circuits were able to form other, lesser circuits by recombining the modular scales in different arrangements.
This way, the god of blacksmiths had not only accomplished giving one item three different looks, but Seth fathomed that each mode of the Aegis had its own unique set of effects, which made it even scarier that he intended to add more.
This had given him quite the headache. With three possible combinations, there were three sets of effects he could interrupt with his additions.
For one, Seth intended to add the ballad of Damage Reflection to the Aegis. But that one was the least of his worries. It was the demonic forging ballad with one of the most neutral effects he had. Neutral, as in not disrupting other magic effects in an item.
But he also intended to infuse Phinene's Soul into the Aegis, which was a less predictable move. Since the plates were made up of a mix of the gorgon leather and, in this case, the
However, the blacksmith had decided to rely on his crafting luck and the robust design of a divine crafter. After going over the blueprint again, Seth brought out the 10 remaining ingots of
Beside Seth, the demonic lyre began playing his song. Singing the forging ballad, the blacksmith processed the ingots into triangular bars. Each bar was then cut into 21 smaller pieces, creating 210 triangles he continued to forge into the plates of the Aegis.
Under his incessant chants, the dark runes flowed into the plates, tinting the golden hue of the silver slightly darker and more mysterious. Plate for plate, the blacksmith worked himself through the heap of triangles.
Forging 210 triangular scales was the easy part; next came fusing each of them with a layer of gorgon leather, which would then create the surface of the item. But maybe the hardest part of the armor would have been the gorgon's head. Phinene's head was massive and not fit to be used as an ornament as is. Like the dragon skull, it needed to be shrunk down.
However, it was different from the skull, which he got as clean bone. The gorgon's head was fresh and still had all of its fleshy bits, skin, and brain inside. Especially the last one couldn't stay in there.
Seth's skin crawled at the thought of the entombment rites of the western desert, where they used an iron hood to swirl around the brain and pull it out from the nose.
The blacksmith was never one for the icky sticky stuff. Fresh or rotting bodies were not his thing. He had to fight hard not to gag when he did stuff like Jonah's or Evee's artificial limbs. He would have been a terrible necromancer or healer.
It was a good thing the crafty crafter had a brilliant idea and found a way to not only avoid the worst part of the build, and make it much easier on himself. The golem forge, turning soft flesh and fresh corpses into golem bodies ever since he got it. It was no difficulty to throw the head into the golem forge and let it do its work.
While he worked on the scales, the crafting station turned the fleshy head into something he could properly work with. Once the head was a hardened, desiccated version of itself, the blacksmith had no problem working it with Charon's Obol.
Seth was glad to have his hammer; otherwise, he would have had to rely solely on his
Despite making it easier on himself, shrinking down the head alone took as long as forging the initial scales, but he ultimately finished before his throat became sore. The last bit he did for the day was to prepare a couple of special scales.
21 of the 210 were special, as they were not fused with a patch of gorgon leather, but the snakes from Phinene's head. These had undergone the golem transformation, together with the head, making them look much closer to actual ornaments than dead golden snakes.
These 21 were dedicated hem pieces for the cloak and breastplate, while they would take a central part in the shield, surrounding the gorgon head. The snakes, holding a potent venom, added another offensive quality to the Aegis.
At this point, Seth was actually done with the forging, and his voice finally fell silent. Luckily, there was no need to assemble the scales, as the enchantment would create something Seth called arcane magnetism. The magic would allow them to hold together and reassemble.
He could have started enchanting now, but it was already getting late, and he started feeling the journey and fatigue from singing and forging. He decided to continue after a good rest and returned to his girlfriends.