Hephaestus looked at me like I was crazy.
Which, to be fair in her divine eye, maybe I truly was. As I supposedly had an idea, of how to mass-produce growth cheats. These were the rarest of skills, held only by the legends who had reached level eight or the Empress, who was the sole level nine of the world.
"Look, I apply a material and its concepts and what makes it... Itself will be added to the other item." I said before pointing at my goddess. "If you the forging goddess and our own goddess who fills our Falna with strength cannot give blacksmiths better Excellia growth then there shouldn't be any growth skills at all!" I said strongly making Hephaestus's mouth twitch before she smiled wryly.
"Jake, it's not just that you may be wrong that has earned me calling you a fool." She leaned closer and spoke softly. "What if you were right, and I allowed you to mass produce such hammers to enhance the Hephaestus Familia smiths... What happens when my smiths drunk on their level-up party spill their guts about how all the smiths began leveling up every year around the same damned time?" She questioned frowning.
I almost wanted to interject by saying something along the lines of just not telling them about the hammer's excellia growth but there was the fact that all the smiths in the Familia typically made their own tools for the most part so they would be comfortable in their own hands. And in the same vein as Hephaestus's previous words, expecting a dwarf to not get drunk was a damned pipe dream.
"Then can we try just for Tsubaki to have one at least?!" I said holding my hands up in prayer having given up all pride... I wanted my damned Golden Egg!
Hephaestus and Tsubaki shared a look, a long judging look as Tsubaki looked away shiftily and Hephaestus snorted as she looked back with a weak smile. "Sorry Jake, Tsubaki is also a weak-minded drunk... Also, a perverted one who gropes people as well." She finished dryly and my head clunked onto the wooden surface of Hephaestus's office desk making the forge goddess snort at my action.
"You aren't even a smith, why are you wanting to make items that increase Excellia gain via that anyway?" Hephaestus questioned and I went on to explain how I was wanting to trade the Golden Egg Tsubaki had in storage for such a hammer. And then the conversation spiraled to how I could make such hammers for the whole Familia via a couple of drops of Hephaestus's blood or something.
In the end, Hephaestus covered the bottom of her face with her enclosed head with her eyes closed as she was clearly in thought, in the classical Gendo pose... And after a moment of consideration, she seemingly made a decision as her hands unfolded and she used one hand to unbutton the top two buttons of her top to pull out a large ornate, and extremely complicated key.
"Very well. Jake, just as the divines and adventurers take far greater monetary risk in buying a grimoire I don't mind taking a little risk for you now." She said with a small smile as she winked at me at how I tried and was failing at looking away at her large pale cleavage that was proudly pushing itself free from her dress shirt prison.
So as Hephaestus and Tsubaki went into the vault and I obviously as a green level one was left in the waiting room. I was ruefully smiling at Hephaestus's previous words... A Golden Egg from a Jack Bird depending on its demand was worth a base of one million Valis and went up to five if a lot of people were demanding it for their projects. But a Grimoire that could inscribe magic upon our very soul and Falna was in a completely different game.
Depending on the level of the Grimoire, they started at a base rate of three hundred million and went all the fucking way up to five billion if the Grimoire was made by a magic god or goddess themselves. A single Golden Egg was truly a massive amount of difference in funds.
And as for why people would buy such an extremely expensive grimoire... Well, it was a matter of investment as Valis was similar to the Japanese Yen back in my old world so that five billion price tag could be equaled out to about 35 million US Dollars which yes was a huge amount of money but let's say you were buying a grimoire for an already higher level adventurer and more specifically an elf at that.
As a level five and above elves would have a life span literally equal to a thousand years and if they reached a higher level their life span would further increase so for them especially it was a great deal as the Empress being level nine and more than two hundred years old still only looked like a woman in her mid to late twenties supposedly from the rumors I heard.
My ruminations about the insane cost of Grimoires were cut short as Tsubaki and Hephaestus came around the corner from the vault entrance that was supposedly very fucking lethally trapped to all heaven to stop thieves and only keyed to Hephaestus and Tsubaki being allowed into the hallway that led into the vault.
Hephaestus gently handed over a football-sized and kind of shaped felt bag and as I pulled open the bag I saw the gleaming almost metallic golden gleam of the Jack Bird Egg. "Go ahead and fuse it into whatever you want. I am curious to see what comes of it." She said taking a seat and sending Tsubaki a look which had her captain walk across the room to bar the entrance as I took the egg into my fusion space along with Almiraj pelts which were rabbit monsters. And finally, I grimaced as I used the scrap adamantine dust I had accumulated that Tsubaki let me have so she could skip having to deal with that debris.
My fusion space became a blur of light momentarily for a few seconds making me feel mounting stress... But finally, I got the result and as I took it out of my fusion space I checked it out.
The necklace was plated in the metallic egg shine of the golden egg and likewise so was the rabbit's foot that hung from the end of the necklace that I could put under my armor. So with the pure visual inspection done, I looked into what it actually did. [Lucky Lifeforce Necklace.] [Increase's user's natural luck, which includes bringing them into 'lucky' situations. The user has increased regeneration and while the body is not harmed by ailment or have any wounds, the user will experience small increased Excellia growth so long as they remain unharmed.]
I quickly put it on my neck with a smile as all 'small' increases to Excellia growth would stack up... Because there was nothing to say I couldn't use my golden eggs to make that growth better, use weapons with monster-killing growth. Or hell I could literally just make rings or bracelets with more enchantments as well!
"Well? How is it?" Hephaestus asked anxiously and I smiled smugly as I explained the effect of the item with Hephaestus visibly closing her eyes and taking a breath before she spoke dryly. "You are bullshit, Jake... If it wasn't for how Zeus's adventurers would abduct you, I would have you make more things for the Familia." She said wryly.