Chapter 19: Hephaestus's Gaze Sharpened (Part 2) (Patreon)

Inside the shop, the air had gone strangely quiet.

After a long moment, a snort of laughter came from behind Hephaestus.

The red-haired goddess turned around and gave a resigned look at her own Familia's captain, who was behind the counter with a hand clamped over her mouth, shoulders shaking.

"Tsubaki~"

"Ah, sorry, sorry, Lady Hephaestus." The black-haired, one-eyed master smith wiped away the tears that had welled at the corners of her eye. "It's just been so long since I've seen one of your invitations turned down. I couldn't hold it in."

She had joined the Hephaestus Familia when she was very young, and now, in her early thirties, she had long since become something like family to her patron goddess, without any blood between them.

In private, neither of them minded a harmless joke or two.

Hephaestus folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at the 'girl' until Tsubaki's laughter faded. Only then did she shake her head and speak again. "Let's hear it. What did that boy buy from our shop yesterday? And that engraving knife you just handed him, what exactly did he ask for when he ordered it?"

Once business came up, Tsubaki's expression sobered. She immediately recited every word Renan had said when he came to the shop yesterday, without missing a single one.

When she finished, she couldn't resist grumbling. "Since I became a smith, I've been asked to make a magic sword that never breaks, a weapon that can easily pierce a floor boss's defenses, even armor with the effect of an Elven Ward Cloth. But this is the first time anyone's asked me for an engraving knife that can damage second-grade equipment. I really wonder what that Renan lad was thinking."

On the other side of the counter, as her Familia's captain went on, the red-haired goddess's eyes slowly sharpened.

She had been born in Heaven as a goddess of the forge. It was fair to say there was no smithing technique in this world she didn't know.

And precisely because of that, once she heard that Renan had ordered an engraving knife, and that every line of his request hinted that he meant to work on the gear he'd bought, Hephaestus realized at once what it meant. The boy who had just shown the aptitude of an ancient hero had very likely awakened a skill for turning ordinary equipment into magic items.

Better still, if she guessed right, that skill most likely had something to do with engraving.

The gods of the DanMachi world had come down to the lower world in the first place to seek the 'unknown'.

It was only that this so-called [unknown] meant something entirely different to each god.

What Soma, the 'God of Wine,' craved was more kinds of 'divine wine.'

What Freya, the 'Goddess of Beauty,' hoped for was a 'companion' who would stay with her for eternity.

As for the 'Goddess of the Forge,' Hephaestus… well, she was the goddess of the forge. What she sought could only ever be more smithing techniques she didn't know, or had never seen.

"Damn it!" The red-haired goddess smacked her own forehead, her face full of regret and frustration. "I should have had you hold that boy back, Tsubaki."

Should've Restrained You Hard.jpg

This was the first time Tsubaki had seen her patron goddess like this… no, wait. Several years ago, when she'd heard that the god Hermes had recruited an adventurer who could make magic items, Lady Hephaestus had seemed tempted once before.

Back then, though, the goddess had grumbled that Hermes was, after all, a friend from the same circle of gods in Heaven, and it would be bad form to go after one of his children.

But now…

A bead of cold sweat quietly formed on the one-eyed master smith's forehead as it dawned on her. "Um, Lady Hephaestus, you wouldn't be thinking of…"

Hephaestus didn't answer. She just wore an expression that looked more 'dangerous' from every angle.

…

Renan had no idea that, without his saying a word, the goddess of the forge had already roughly guessed at his skill of 'magic item crafting.'

Back at the inn, he didn't rush to start engraving the matching runes onto his gear. Instead, he took out a mortar and stone pestle he'd picked up on the way back at a general store, along with the scattered magic stones he'd collected fighting monsters in the Dungeon yesterday.

Unlike rune scrolls, which could be churned out by the stack with nothing but ordinary ink and parchment, turning equipment into a magic item took more. Besides engraving the right combination of runes on the surface or inside, he also had to fill the grooves with a liquid material that conducted magic well, then let it dry and harden.

In the Harry Potter world, the blood of most magical creatures could be used to fill rune engravings. Some gave a greater boost to fire-attribute runes, while others strengthened defensive runes.

And in the DanMachi world… well, similar materials existed too, of course.

The high-end options were the magic gems made by fairies, and the gem-type materials dropped by monsters in the middle and lower Dungeon.

Grind them to powder and mix them with an adhesive like glue or pine resin.

In theory, they could be treated as equivalent magic-conducting materials.

But obviously, even in Orario, the Labyrinth City of adventurers, magic gems were far from cheap.

The lowest-grade one often cost a million or two Valis, and higher quality could multiply that price several times over.

On top of that, most of the time they were priced but never actually stocked. Even adventurers with the money usually had to go through the Guild's channels and fill out an application form to get their hands on a mere few.

The special gems dropped by monsters were even rarer. Meddlesome collectors had driven their prices straight into the tens of millions of Valis!

On the surface, Renan was just a Lv1 adventurer. He had no intention of stepping onto Orario's stage anytime soon and becoming entertainment for gods with time to kill.

Besides, spending several million, even nearly ten million Valis, just to make a few low-tier magic items he wouldn't use for long and would inevitably replace…

In his eyes, that was a bit too wasteful.

So…

If he couldn't use the high-end materials, then naturally he had to look for a cheaper substitute among the low-grade ones.

Magic stones, for instance.

Orario had become the center of the entire lower world continent precisely because adventurers kept pulling magic stones out of the Dungeon by killing monsters.

And the Guild's workshops could further process those magic stones into all kinds of everyday goods that even ordinary people needed.

The simplest example: the magic stone lamps Renan saw lining the streets every night ran on energy supplied by magic stones.

From that angle, magic stones were certainly a material that conducted and stored magic.

Still, the techniques for processing them were a core Guild secret.

Renan wasn't sure whether a magic stone would keep its original properties once ground to powder.

'If that really doesn't work, I'll have to trouble the Astraea Familia again tomorrow and ask them to buy two magic gems for me.'