Chapter 17: Hephaestus's Gaze Sharpened (Part 1) (Patreon)

Renan stared at the third golden star condensing in midair within the shared space. He opened his mouth to say something, hesitated for a long moment, and closed it again.

It was a while before he let out a slow, heavy breath.

"Other me, you never awakened the memories the rest of us share, but at your core, you were still me."

"Now that I've shared your power, I'll make your wish come true for you: clearing the Kanto League and becoming champion of the Indigo Plateau Conference."

"As for the League Inspector part…" He paused for half a second. "I can't stay in the Pokémon world forever, and my personality isn't quite the same as yours anyway. But I can try wiping out Team Rocket for you. They're the biggest villains in Kanto, after all. Kill Giovanni and every last one of his subordinates, and Kanto won't be perfectly peaceful, but there'll definitely be a lot less chaos. That counts as fulfilling your dream from a different angle."

As he spoke, Renan raised his head and looked up at the temporal node leading to the Pokémon world.

A flicker of hesitation crossed his eyes.

Unlike the Demon Slayer world, with its genuine dangers, or the Harry Potter world, which was stalled for now, the dangers of the Pokémon world didn't look like much to Renan, who now held all that power within himself and had comfortably reached Lv3 strength.

Once he projected his consciousness there, he could easily kill the Ekans that had killed his other self.

But it came back to the same old problem.

Renan didn't know whether his body in the DanMachi world would stay behind in reality when he sent his consciousness across.

For safety's sake, he decided to wait a little longer.

One way or another, he first needed to build a 'territory' secure enough that nobody could easily invade or destroy it.

"Still…" Renan narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Now that I've shared another 'me's' power, my strength with Thunder Breathing active should land in the lower-middle range of Lv3. At that level, can I really still earn the great deeds I need to level up if I go down to the lower floors?"

He was doubtful.

"And if I run into the next 'me' before I earn one… Tch!"

Renan suddenly felt that the Falna of the DanMachi world wasn't all that useful.

In some ways it even held back his growth.

But on second thought, without the Falna he probably couldn't have entered the shared space at all, let alone grown strong so fast by borrowing the power of his selves from other worlds.

"Forget it. I'll stick to the original plan. These two days, I'll grind out a batch of rune scrolls to sell, then modify the gear I bought today, and finally buy a property and set up the barrier."

That was what Renan planned, and that was what he did.

The next day, evening.

After spending the whole day grinding rune scrolls in his inn room, he pushed open the door of the Hephaestus Familia's main shop.

He had come to pick up the engraving knife he'd ordered the day before.

What he hadn't expected was that someone besides Tsubaki would be sitting behind the counter.

The figure had short, slightly curled red hair, a black mask covering the right half of her face, and wore a white shirt and black leather pants. Her build was slender and long-limbed, yet she was trim where she should be trim and full where she should be full.

If he guessed right, this was very likely the patron god of the Hephaestus Familia, Hephaestus, the Goddess of Forging.

Thoughts raced through Renan's mind. He raised his right hand to his chest and bowed respectfully to her.

As Renan noticed Hephaestus, she naturally noticed him too.

But the boy standing outside the counter wasn't much to look at, and he gave off no special aura.

So after her gaze swept over Renan, Hephaestus only gave a slight nod by way of greeting and went back to her own business.

Tsubaki, on the other hand, had been waiting for Renan all day.

Seeing this customer with the odd requests finally show up, she didn't hesitate. She took the engraving knife she'd finished forging the day before from the counter drawer and held it out. "Here's what you wanted. The blade has a good amount of [Adamantite] in it, and the edge is inlaid with fine bits of [Diamond]."

Renan took the knife and made a small request. "Can I test it?"

That was only reasonable, so Tsubaki didn't refuse. Leaving him with a "Wait a moment," she clacked into the forge in her straw sandals. When she reappeared, she was holding a silvery-white metal ingot.

"This is [Adamantite]. Mix in a little when you forge weapons and armor, and the hardness goes way up. It's an essential material for making second-grade and first-grade gear."

"If you can leave a mark on its surface, then forget first-grade gear, but at the very least, every second-grade piece will be put to shame by that knife."

As she spoke, Tsubaki set the [Adamantite] on the counter and gestured for the boy to go ahead.

Renan didn't hesitate. He pressed his left hand down on the [Adamantite], gripped the knife in his right, and laid the edge slantwise against its surface.

Then the muscles in his arm slowly tightened.

—Screeech!

It was faint, but all three people in the shop heard it, a sound like fingernails scraping a blackboard.

Hephaestus, who had been busy with her own work, was drawn in by the noise the two beside her were making.

She looked up and turned toward the source.

And then…

"Oh my~"

The red-haired goddess's face showed surprise as she saw the shallow groove scored into the [Adamantite].

And it wasn't only her. Tsubaki, who had been half hoping to enjoy watching Renan fail, now looked noticeably more serious.

As the main material for high-grade weapons and armor, [Adamantite] had a hardness that was famous.

Even an ordinary Lv1 or Lv2 adventurer, using a special engraving knife of their own making, had to heat the [Adamantite] to a certain temperature to soften it first before barely leaving the faintest mark.

But the boy in front of her, judging by how calm he looked, clearly hadn't used his full strength.

In other words…

'A Lv3 adventurer? Or even higher?'

Tsubaki and Hephaestus thought at the same moment.

Hephaestus quietly shook her head a moment later.

'No, I don't remember seeing this boy's profile at any past Denatus.'

'Or is he an adventurer who only recently arrived in Orario? Or maybe… someone from the dark factions?'

As the patron god of a production-focused Familia, the red-haired goddess certainly had no fondness for the Familias of evil gods who went around causing destruction.

If she happened to run into one, with Tsubaki there too, she wouldn't mind doing the military police's job for once and arresting the person ahead of time.