Today we made it to minotaur in the dungeon the sad part is our basic steel gear couldn't damage it's skin. It kinda just flubbed off its body then we had to resort to magic. we could still beat it to death with our fists tho but that was like hitting iron and took like a longggggg time. not to mention they are like 8 feet tall and packed full of muscle one good wack and it's broken bones, gear, and spirit.
This call for an upgrade. What were going straight to vibranium?!?! Nope I'm gunna go check out some equipment shops and see what kind of gear they have. I mean I know like 3 or 4 what do you take me for a blacksmith I get steel then mithril then admantium then vibranium there's shit in between I just dunno what the hell it's called.
I had to head home early I'll also have to retrofit the shadows only the mage and archer are doing well.
I met hestia at home and explained my busted weapons. "ooh I can introduce you to my friend hepheastus she is the best blacksmith in town." she explained excitedly.
I put on some nice clothes Grab my spare gear I have specific lengths and such that I'm used to and if I'm getting anything I'll special order it to my specifications. I want to see how good the goddess of smithing is.
We head out to the hepheastus Familia area. It's filled with people blacksmithing and peddling wares, buying and selling ores and other materials. I see different weapons and armors up for show with people bragging about theirs over their competitors. Business seems to be booming.
Hestia skips over to a manager and he walks off to tell hepheastus. In the original story hestia commissions hepheastus for a special dagger for bell cranel it's a growth style weapon that levels up with the user and is alive. cost her a nice 100 million valis and lots of time and effort and even some divine blood and blessings. now that's a lot of potatoes to sell. hestia would go through hell for any part of her family and that's what I like about her.
We get welcomed in to a private room/ forge by the manager and I get to see the goddess of smithing herself. Hephaestus has a crimson eye and red hair reaching to the waist. She has a rather sharp face and slender body with an eyepatch over her right eye. Hephaestus has a complex about her right eye and is hated because of this. Her Familia members were also afraid of her eye with Hestia being the only one who showed no sign of fear or hate. Apparently it's a really nasty curse I'll end up fixing that stuff for her.
Hestia is practically bouncing in joy at seeing her friend. They hug and start babbling, hestia bragging about getting her own Familia finally.
"Before we get into business I have a few small gifts for being my little glutton goddesses friend." I take out 2 small bottles and a block of metal. I bottles have what look like a crimson liquid and a golden colored liquid. "can you tell me what's in these two bottles miss." I smile and pass her the bottles.
She looks at them for a bit then, looks confused. "These are fire in liquid form?" I nod at her "They are indeed those are some pretty rare fires that don't show up here I don't think. one contains dragons flames and the other contains phoenix flames." I had bought these from the store I had a plan for them. I couldn't use them in my kingdom because I haven't figured out how to harness them like the system did. so what I plan to do is make her feed her original flame and then try to get me a tiny part. "Those can be fed to your flame to increase magical property and purity when refining materials." she grips them like a priceless treasure. "Do you know how much these flames would be worth if sold?" she asked with eyes narrowed. these flames could probably build 2 new blacksmith factions and run her out of business. I just smile at her. "I only have 3 small requests." "what are they?" she asks suspiciously. "well first off I need some minor things forged." I take out my ninjato, my throwing knives, dagger, and gloves. "sure I'll make you the best of the best." she replies after looking at the weapons. "ah I don't need the best right now I need the next grade up I don't want some super strong weapon I already have anything better than in this shop. what I really need is the next level up from steel and so on scaling after my current one can no longer make the cut. Did you know these steel blades lasted me all the way to the 15th floor?" she laughed "Ridiculous most people have at least a magic weapon by floor 10 and I don't believe I haven't got a single piece of gear that your not interested in your just bragging." my smile grows wider. "you didn't accept my request?" she looked at me. "fine I accept but I want a bet with you later as my pride as a blacksmith can't have you insulting my weapons."
"Deal." Sucker.
Now guys I'm going to give you some pro grade tips and tricks right now. You remember like the third chapter. I got this thing called gamers mind where I'm always calm but it never seemed to work? Well let me tell you apparently passive abilities like that can be turned on and off and mine was off this entire time til I was checking stats in this world a few weeks ago so was gamers body. Insane right? so moral of the story always turn your passive skills on.
Now your probably asking yourself Ryan why would you ever want to turn off a passive skill.
let me tell you about a small horror story about a young lad reincarnated with endless sexual stamina. Now let me tell you about the same lad never being fully satisfied because his passive was always on. let me throw in one more story let's say a king loved gold so much he was granted a wish that everything he touched turned to gold including the food he wanted to eat or water he wanted to drink. Moral of the story is folks passive abilities can sometimes blow ass.
"my next request is very simple don't move." I walk over and run my hand up her cheek and slowly removed her eye patch while she is trembling. notifications start blowing up my mind resistances increase gamer mind takes over and I just smile. running my thumb under her cursed eye it kind of looks like the abyss and some other things I can't describe. the system informs me of multiple spells and curses overlayed into one spot. There's repelling charms, compulsion charms, dark curses to prevent healing and inflict minor pain and emotional instability. it's designed to look like the most disgusting and loathsome thing in the world. Whoever made it was a genius. I suck it right into my system. It's like a kind of black hole of misery. I'll give it to my vampire for later see if he can absorb it for intimidation purposes. this would be an example of a passive you'd want to turn off.
now all that's left is a scarred eye I use some phoenix tears and other nice little full heals from the system on to fix completely before covering it back up with her eye patch and patting her cheek. She had her eyes closed this entire time and didn't even notice what I did. hestia did though. I give her the shush signal with my finger. "You can open your eye now it's not like your some monster." she opened It and looked at me expecting fear or hate but nope all it was, was at smile. "You saw?" I just chuckled "yep looks like an eye to me might want to check it out later there was something going on with it." I looked at her seriously. before she can ask anything I cut her off "and my last request is that once your done feeding your flame I want to see a small piece of the fire. deal?" she nods. I pat her head and leave my weapons and the cube behind. "oh and check that cube for imperfections it's yours make sure you check really closely if you don't find them your not a proper goddess of smithing." I pick up my hestia in the patented plushie hold and head back out to go home. That block of vibranium has zero imperfections it was made absolutely perfect to the last cell by the system its going to drive her absolutely mad, come watch the world burn with me boys.
I buy a few books on metals before I leave. "You know that was a nice thing you did for her." hestia said. "nope it was all for my own personal gain I'm all evil." we pick up some kebabs from a street vendor and make our way home for the night while I browse the book. apparently after steel comes magisteel it's steel soaked in some form of liquid increasing it's properties. then comes magisteel mixed with small bits of of mithril for strength the more mithril the more expensive the item then comes things like admantium and orichalcum which is metal as light as air almost. I'll upgrade the shadows tonight. have them skip a few levels they don't effect my training so it should be fine.