(Lyze POV)
I arrived at the Hephaestus workplace about half an hour later I would say. Going by flight would have been more convenient but at this time where lots of people were about was not a convenient time to do such a thing. The only reason I had done it when Riveria took me to the dungeon was because it had been early in the morning and the streets were pretty much empty.
Wouldn't you be freaked out if somebody suddenly flew over you?
So I had to go there on foot. I could have hitched a ride on one of the carts. Apparently there was thing here where you could hitch a ride on a cart if it happened to be going to the same place you were, provided you compensated the driver of course. But as I soon discovered myself, I was quite tight with my money nor did I have the time to haggle over the price of a ride.
Coming by the walls that surrounded the series of buildings that clearly looked like a multitude of forges, I made my way over to the gates and was met by two guards standing by. One stood straight to attention as I approached and eyed me cautiously.
"Got any proper business to be here for lad?" He asked in a tired gruff voice. I also couldn't imagine the life of a security guard was at all exciting though. I did wonder about something however which I then confirmed by using Chaos Vision to look at his back.
Another power of Chaos granted to me. I could see whatever I wanted to see, no matter where I'm standing or even if what I wanted to see was out of view due to an angle or being out of place altogether. And even when a Falna was locked up, I could still see it if I wanted to. That's how I knew the top three executives were very near to levelling up to six. I supposed they needed a great even or something to push them over the edge.
And seeing this man's stats, surprisingly he was a lower tier level 2. Even my stats were higher than his although to be honest, I was still probably stronger than him even when I was level 1.
That was the perk of having actually broken my mortal parameters prior to even getting a Falna. So while officially I was a level 2, technically I was a level 3 if you counted in my previous achievements to joining the Loki Familia. Although now I was beginning to learn the ups and downs of that fact. The usual stat limit to adventurers here was 999. Going beyond that was them breaking the limit, where as my limit appeared to be 1500. So that meant if I maxed out my stats every time I levelled up, I would 500 more stat points than the maximum the majority of adventurers could achieve in each stat. So this meant that it would be harder for me to break my limit.
On the plus side, I could already fight at a level higher than my own and maybe a bit higher provided the level 4 was not a high skilled one like Noir given that some of my stats had actually reached the SSS rank. On the downside, it was significantly harder to stack up on my stats without going deeper into the dungeon than I already was. And going any deeper was certain to catch the attention of the executives, plus all the preparations I'd have to make in order to set camp down there.
Guess there's no such thing as a free lunch, eh?
Coming back to the moment, I merely pulled out the letter that Gareth's contact had given him. I'd looked for a name but there was just a stamp on it. After a bit of thought on the matter, I decided that it was in effort to keep the personal smith of a first class adventurer secret.
Gareth was pretty famous after all, and celebrities tend to try and keep personal things a secret. The only ones who would know this information about him would be his Familia members, hence why I was going to meet whoever it was. As soon as the guard saw the stamp at the bottom, all traces of caution was instantly wiped off his face and he looked at me.
"You would be the kid mentioned here then?"
I nodded in reply. He gulped, not in fear, but in satisfaction of my answer. You know, the casual gulps people do when too much saliva accumulates in their mouth. Anyway, he handed the letter back to me and opened the gate. Giving me the directions to the smith's forge, he ushered me through and locked the gate again behind me.
As I was leaving though, I heard him mutter behind me, "Lucky little bugger." I found that a level up really did enhance the natural senses of a person and among those was my hearing. I mean in this life and my last, I had good hearing but to be able to hear his mutter from a few feet away, in a place full of the clanging of hammers and the shouts of orders and angry smiths and customer's alike, it was nothing short of amazing to me.
I continued onwards following the directions of the smith. I noticed that the path I was following happened to be a little bigger than the others I was seeing, and there were more people gathered on it. It flew over my head until I finally reached the place I was sure to be Gareth's contact's. The door seemed to be more fancy than the others and I firmly rapped on it, making sure that the sound would reach the person inside over the obvious clanging of a hammer I could hear in there.
"Come in!" Came a woman's voice which sounded oddly heavy and at the same time, oddly familiar. I shoved the door open and stepped into a blazing hot forge that would have probably been a little uncomfortable if I hadn't been in a forge before and if I hadn't a natural resistance to fire courtesy of my ability to manipulate it.
What greet me was the sight of a dark skinned woman with an eyepatch over her left eye. She was clad in sandals and a red hakama, with bandages wrapped tightly around a very well endowed chest. Sweat that cascaded down her skin made it gleam in the sunlight that was streaming through a window as it shone over the person hunched over an anvil and banging away at a block of metal.
I stopped in my tracks as I completely did not expect to meet this person, whom I now knew why sounded so familiar. Was it any wonder either way that I'd be caught off-guard because of who exactly I was staring at? The best blacksmith in Orario beside Hephaestus herself and Welf who I didn't know if he was even in Orario at this point.
Tsubaki Collbrande, the captain of the Hephaestus Familia. And like fate was having a good laugh at me, I caught sight of the red haired goddess herself sitting at a table just beyond her captain. Both women looked up from whatever they were doing to meet me as my brain did a backflip for a moment.
'Why, trope, why!?'
---
(General POV)
"I'm not that hideous now am I?" Tsubaki laughed at him as he stood still, having not even closed the door behind him. "Although I can't really imagine if you would be able to see thanks to you supposedly being blind and all, especially with that blindfold on."
"I can see just fine." Lyze replied as he closed the door behind him, drowning out most of the noise behind him as he tried to fixate himself on what was happening before him. "Am I in the right place?"
"Why would you not be?" Tsubaki asked him.
"Because I asked Gareth if he could link me to a blacksmith I could apprentice under and he said he knew someone. I didn't expect them to be the captain of Orario's chief smithing Familia." Lyze said.
Hephaestus covered her mouth with her fingers and giggled slightly as she looked at him with a harmlessly mocking smile.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, little Minstrel." She said. "I doubt you are of a skill level where you could actually be considered to apprentice under my captain here. She is only meant to test your skill level so she can determine exactly which smith will be your guide.
"I'm actually surprised the Hephaestus Familia would consider teaching somebody from a different Familia." Lyze said as he walked forwards and placed his bag down on the table.
"We've always had good blood with lil' old Loki." Tsubaki said as she put her hammer down and stood up. "And besides, it's not like we'd be teaching you something major like passing a Durandal attribute onto a weapon. We are just supposed to teach you how to make weapons of a better quality than the standard grade."
"I suppose that's fine then, since I didn't come here to learn anything like your aforementioned. I came here for help with something else." Lyze said as he placed a hand on his chest and bowed a little. "My name is Lyzof Keele. I am the newest member of the Loki Familia. My friends call my Lyze, which you can also call me if you wish."
"Very well Lyze." Hephaestus said. "You may already know this but my name is Hephaestus. I am the patron goddess of the Hephaestus Familia and here is my captain Tsubaki. I have to say it's an interesting moment to meet Loki's little minstrel and record breaker."
"Is it true you sang so well that it mad the gods cry? Cuz boy I wish I was there for once." Tsubaki said as she placed her fists on her hips.
"The singing was a result of a bit of an internal crisis." Lyze said flatly. "Don't expect anything similar anytime soon."
"A shame." Hephaestus said as she closed her one visible eye and shook her head. "Anyway, you said you wanted help with 'something else'. Could you explain?"
"Yes. Would you two have a look at these?" Lyze said as he took two daggers out of his bag and handed one each to the two women. Hephaestus merely looked over it but Tsubaki seemed to take on a more practical appraisal. She first flicked the blade before biting down on it with her teeth.
"Is this made of...steel?" Tsubaki asked in slight awe.
"Yes?"
"How did you make this?"
"By melting iron in an open furnace in the presence of a good bit of air and clumps of coke." He replied.
"Well, I have to say that these are very well made." Hephaestus said as she held it aloft. "A piece of work you'd expect from a decent blacksmith. You could do business with something like this if you decided to, even if you decided not to become a high end blacksmith."
"I consider these failed creations though." Lyze said. The two women stared at him dumbly.
"What do you mean kid?" Tsubaki said. "I mean yes, our smiths could definitely do better but these are still good daggers. What exactly were you aiming for?"
"This." Lyze said as he pulled out another dagger that unlike the steel ones was much lighter, pearl-ish, almost a pure white in colour and yet was beautifully made. He passed it over the table and Hephaestus snatched it up before Tsubaki could. Again she eyed the blade, her single eyeball dancing over the sharp edges as a look of disbelief was plastered all over her face.
"What is this!?" She half shouted.
"What's up Hephaistos?" Tsubaki said, confusion written on her own face.
The red haired woman leaned over the table and held the dagger in front of him, shaking it frantically.
"Did you make this?" She asked Lyze.
"Yes, under some careful guidance." He replied calmly.
"Hephy, what's going on?" Tsubaki asked, concerned about her goddess's reaction.
"Take a look for yourself Tsubaki." Hephaestus said as she passed it over. The half-dwarf took it from her and examined it trying to find out what was making her so excited. After a minute of examining, Tsubaki's eyes widened a little.
"Is this a magical weapon?" Tsubaki tentatively asked.
"It is." Lyze said with a half-proud smile. "But that is not what is making your goddess so excited."
"No? Then what is?" Tsubaki raised her eyebrow at Hephaestus.
"Tsubaki! How can you not tell? It's made from a metal even I have never seen!"
The captain's eyes widened as she stared at the boy who only nodded to the goddess's words.
"What's the meaning of this?" Hephaestus sked enthusiastically. "Where did you get this metal from?"
"And here is where I actually aim to conduct another thing I wished to do with you." Lyze said as he smiled.
"And that would be?" Tsubaki questioned.
"Apart from my blacksmithing lessons? Business."
"Business?"
"Yes. I am the only one who knows how to come by this metal. Moreover I'm the only one who currently knows how to shape it." Lyze said. "I am willing to negotiate an appropriate price for the knowledge of this metal."
Hephaestus and Tsubaki exchanged a glance. They'd only expected a youngster to come in and demonstrate the skills he'd claimed to have already possessed. Instead he'd come to them with a magical dagger made out of a metal they'd never seen before.
Only the goddess knew the metal's real worth. It rivalled the likes of Mythril which was hard to come by. On one hand, she was rejoicing at the fact this naïve youngster seemed almost willing to part with the secret to how he acquired an invaluable treasure like this for a price he seemed to believe she could afford.
She was a goddess of smithing for heaven's sake! And she'd never seen this metal before. That alone made the metal very valuable. But another part of herself felt that there was something the boy was hiding, or something he seemed to be playing at.
The instinctual part of her that had developed as a result of centuries of business told her to at least tread carefully on this subject before making any agreement with him.
"Would you at least tells us about this metal, and it's properties?" She asked. He nodded.
"Certainly. To begin with it's name, it is simply called...Moonlight..."
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