[I'm beat.]
I finally finished making the blade of the weapon that Sondark requested,
and I fell to my side.
I didn't feel like doing anything anymore. No more spears, no more spears.
[Taichi-san, you can do it! Ah, I've got a fatigue recovery potion here!
Drink up!]
[Stop! You're going to force me to drink something again! Like an erotic
doujin! Like an erotic doujin!]
Marl mounted me as I fell to my side and tried to shove a small bottle
containing a glowing yellow liquid into my mouth.
I desperately resisted. Mabel, who appeared at some point, was helping
Marl. Mabel's eyes were fixed as she tried to hold me down as I resisted!
Scary!
Stop it! Get your hands off me! Let! Me! Go!
[Gaboboaba.]
Recently, Marl had been using me as a test subject――no, as a disposal site
for new potions.
I did say that, but poison won't work on me. So whatever stuff Marl made
me drink, it wouldn't affect me adversely.
Even so, could you please stop using me to test potions that were effective
but had strong side effects?
I'm not a potion waste disposal machine…
[Look! Do you feel 100 times more energetic? Do you?]
[It certainly feels that exhaustion has unnaturally ebbing away, but… what
kind of side effect does this potion have?]
I broke free from the loosened restraints and stood back up. It felt as if my
stiff back, shoulders, and even my arms had been carefully massaged.
Mabel, why are you looking sad? Don't tell me you've really awakened to
that side?
[Nothing too bad, just a little addictive!]
[Isn't that just like a drug! Hey, isn't that a drug!?]
Marl's unapologetically uttered words made me feel like I was going to
regress. I felt like my treatment was getting more and more sloppy, or
rather, it's becoming less merciful.
[Well, but look at this guy. I did my best, didn't I?]
[Yes, indeed.]
In one corner of the smithy, blades were neatly stacked in wooden boxes.
The saber blade, long sword blade, short sword blade, and spear tips were
each packed in a box for easy transport.
The blade of the short swords could also be used for large spears by
attaching it to the tip of the spear handle with some processing.
The tip of the spear could be used for short spears, long spears, or even
longer pikes.
Spears were probably the most common weapon used by infantry, who
made up the majority of the nation's military strength, so I made the most of
them.
I think I made nearly 1000 spear tips. If possible, I don't want to make more
for a while.
I'm gonna make someone's wallet cry since they're going to buy all that
from me. I'll be swimming in a sea of gold coins that fill the entire room in
no time at this rate.
Well, Sondark, or rather, the Karendil Kingdom was in a good mood after
selling the weapons I made to other countries. I could almost hear their loud
laughter from here.
Recently, my reputation in the military seemed to be increasing due to my
devising of sabers and giving them priority to high-quality weapons. At the
very least, it seemed that there was no longer any force that would openly
try to eliminate me.
Apparently, the people who tried to get rid of me were some of the most
powerful people in the military. Thanks to the gift of high-quality mithril
weapons, they seemingly forgot their grudge. Humans were so simple!
[And that's that. I think it's time to strengthen myself and Marl.]
It's been almost 20 days since I received a message from that one-thatmust-not-be-named. There was only a little over a month left.
My current level was 20, and Marl's was 11.
Honestly, if it's just me fighting, I don't think there's much to worry about.
That's how strong I am as an individual.
The problem is Marl. I didn't intend to have her fight on the front lines like
I do, and it probably wouldn't happen from an outside perspective, but just
in case.
After all, leveling up Marl and strengthening her equipment would be
essential. Of course, something might happen to me too, so I should
strengthen myself too.
[The first thing we can do right away is strengthen our equipment. We will
make more powerful weapons for me and Marl]
[Um, but I already have this from Taichi-san.]
Marl said so and gently stroked the mithril dagger hanging from her waist.
Umu, I want you to use the dagger that I gave you.
[I know. That's why, if Marl is alright with it, I'd like to use that dagger as a
material and reforge it into a new one.]
[I see… Yes, I understand. Please do!]
[Leave it to me. Do you have any particular request?]
I took the mithril dagger that Marl gave me and looked at its blade.
Although not as good as I was now, the craftsman who made this was also
good.
[Um, yes. I'd like the blade to be a little longer… but then it wouldn't be a
dagger anymore.]
That's true.
Proposals in this world are only made possible by gifting a mithril dagger,
so for some reason I hesitated to reforge it into a long sword.
However, we had a great flood in our hands. I didn't want to regret things if
it became an irreversible situation.
[Alright, then I'll reforge it into a new dagger. I'll just forge another sword
for Marl. Somewhere longer than this dagger, right?]
[Yes! Please do just that!]
Marl had a big smile on her face. Hahaha, I feel like this smile gave me
more energy than those dubious potions.
Now then, I took a close look at Marl's dagger that I received. Let's burn
this fine decoration into our eyes. The current me should be able to
reproduce it perfectly. I can! I can! I can do it! Yosh.
In fact, the metal called mithril could be given special effects by adding
attribute magic during refining and forging. It became a so-called magic
item.
For example, like Marl's dagger, if you put wind magic into it, you could
reduce the weight and increase the user's agility.
And mithril's color could also be changed. For example, the dagger had
been enchanted with wind magic, giving it a faint green luster.
The dagger was single-edged with a slight curve. It's not as curved as a
saber, so it'll be wrong to call it a curved sword. But it's something close to
it.
I disassembled the dagger and removed the blade from the hilt. The name of
the swordsmith who forged this short sword was carved there. Let's engrave
that name in my heart.
Then, I put it in a smelting furnace, add mithril ore, and use my magic
power to turn it into an ingot.
Then, hit.
Hit it over and over again to put in magic power and soul.
This was for Marl's protection. So I had to do it with great care.
Thus what came out was a masterpiece that still retained the dagger's
original's appearance, but contained stronger magic power.
Let's check it out with the appraisal eye.
Weapon weight reduction, user speed increase, and wind attribute added.
The effect was stronger than before. Of course, its quality was
Transcendent .
Then I carved the name of the original creator and added that I'd reforged
it. The decoration of the blade was also the same as the original.
I put it back into the original hilt, adjusted it, and it's done.
It fit in the scabbard without any problem. As expected of a level 5 in
smithing. The level wasn't just for show.
Then I started forging a longsword for Marl.
Let's make it with a similar design to match the dagger.
Well of course, the blade would be longer, with more curvature, increased
cutting power, while making the tip a little wider and double-edged to
increase piercing power… yeah, like a cutlass.
The blade was decorated in the same way as the dagger, making it look a
little more gorgeous. I should add a knuckle guard too. OK, I had the image.
I hammered it the same way as I did with the dagger earlier.
Strongly yet delicately.
To maintain sword speed and obtain high cutting power.
Then focusing on making the tip of the blade.
And that's it. I'm so good at this.
I imagined it'll be cool to dual wield this sword and the dagger together.
Though, it's Marl, so she might end up cutting herself up.
[Yosh, it's done.]
It seemed that Marl was watching over me the whole time.
She received the two newly forged blades with a curious expression, and
put them on her waist.
Then, she drew them out one by one, squinting her eyes as she checked the
blade and swinging it a little.
The dagger was lighter than before. The cutlass had a long blade and fairly
wide width. It should be about the same weight as the short sword she's
been using until now.
[It's beautiful… Thank you very much! Taichi-san!]
Saying that, Marl smiled with a cutlass in her hand. Yeah, she's cute, but the
entire picture is scary.
She then happily said [I'm going to practice in the backyard!].
I guess she wanted to see how the new sword felt. Being enthusiastic was
always good.
Now then, let's make my own weapon.
What should I do? The sword can simply be reforged, but the problem was
the material used for the battle staff.
Naturally, mithril was a choice material considering its toughness and
lightness, but its performance was still unsatisfactory.
It still lost to Black Steel in terms of physical strength, and lost to Crystal in
terms of magic power amplification.
However, black steel was hopelessly incompatible with magic, and crystals
were vulnerable to shocks, so they couldn't be used as striking weapons
even if they're made into blades.
Orichalcum was completely superior to Mithril. If I dared to say it, the only
drawback was that it's considerably heavier than Mithril.
I don't know… it's like knowing already which one is the strongest, which
makes it less interesting. How can I say it? There was no elegance nor art in
it. But this wasn't for a hobby.
Rather, my life was at stake, so I can't turn my back on it.
No, wait? How about making an alloy of orichalcum and mithril?
Using 2 mithril to 1 orichalcum, wouldn't it be possible to obtain an alloy
with the toughness of orichalcum and the lightness of Mithril to some
extent?
Let's stop theorizing and just try it out.
So, I immediately put the mithril and orichalcum ore into the smelting
furnace and tried to smelt it.
It was my first attempt, but the blacksmithing skill level 5 did the job. After
a complicated procedure and precise temperature control, the mithrilorihalcum alloy was completed.
When I looked at the completed ingot with an appraisal eye, it was
displayed as Godsilver ingot .
Oho, quite a good name for an alloy. I believe Orichalcum is also known as
Divine metal, while Mithril is also called silver. I guess that's where the
name 'Godsilver' came from.
For the time being, I put magic into the ingot, heated it and hammered it to
find out its toughness, hardness, weight, lightness, and magical properties.
Judging from the results, it was slightly heavier than Mithril, had improved
toughness and hardness, and although it was not as strong as Orichalcum in
terms of magical properties, it could store much more magic power than
Mithril.
This was like the best material to make a staff. Okay, let's make more of it
and start making something!
Thus I started mass-producing the Godsilver ingots. Anyway, since I
decided to reforge the sword with the alloy, I used my mithril sword as
ingot material.
In the end, I only used it to dismantle the big hornet's nest. I'm a little sorry,
but please forgive me.
So I hammered away at the Godsilver. Hammer, and hammer away.
It's harder than Mithril, but it's much easier to handle than Orichalcum or
Crystal.
Orichalcum was very hard and didn't stretch easily, so it's quite annoying
since I had to hammer it more than anything else.
On the other hand, Crystal would shatter if you make a mistake in adjusting
the temperature or hammering strength. It's a material that required extreme
care.
In comparison, Godsilver was a straightforward and easy-to-use material.
However, it would be difficult for anyone other than me to make it because
the method and temperature control when making it into an alloy would be
difficult to replicate.
Both ends of the staff were slightly larger and used as the striking part. If
you use a metal stick as is, your hand would go numb when you hit a hard
object.
However, even though it's done in the combat department, it's a bit plain.
Should I carve some decorations? Let's refer to Marl's sword.
[Done!]
I took a look at the Godsilver staff with the appraisal eye. Of course, the
quality was Transcendent , its name was Godsilver staff, and there was
no twist. It's more like a Mithril Constaff. No, just kidding.
When I was thinking about that, the name that appeared as Godsilver staff
became Mithril Constaff. Eh, that's interesting.
Eternal Force Staff sounds awesome. No wait, please don't. Forget that.
When I thought so, the name returned to Godsilver staff.
When I tried it with other things, I found out that I could change the name
of the thing I made.
I see, but honestly it's kind of weird because it's something that only
someone with the Appraisal eye skill can understand.
Alright, let's make a sword next. Actually, I had a good idea for the sword.
The core of the sword would be made from Crystal, while everything
else from Godsilver alloy.
At first, I was thinking of using Orichalcum, but I actually decided against
it because the processing was extremely troublesome.
Godsilver alloy, on the other hand, was relatively easy to process. Plus I
could expect that the results would be pretty strong. So I decided to go with
that.
So, I started by making the Crystal core first.
Crystal was a mysterious substance that combined the properties of glass
and metal.
It melted at high temperatures, just like glass, but it was much tougher than
glass and could be hammered. I don't know why, but I can.
So, when it cooled down, it became transparent like glass, but the more it
was tempered, the more it turned blue when it cooled down. And the bluer
it became, the higher the efficiency of magic power amplification.
That's why it needed to be hammered often. However, if you applied too
much force, it would shatter and become useless. So you needed to pay
close attention when processing it.
Once the sword core was created, it was time to forge the Godsilver that
made up the blade.
This process was more difficult than I thought. After all, it was necessary to
cover it completely without any gaps.
If there was any gap, it would fall apart. Even the slightest deviation was
not allowed.
After repeated trial and error, it was finally completed.
Even with Smithing lvl 5, it still required repeated trial and error… My
ideas can be scary sometimes.
The result was a sword with a transparent blue core and a white silver
blade.
The handle was slightly longer so that it could be handled with one hand or
both hands, making the length including the blade about 130 cm. It's a socalled one-and-half-sword.
However, if it performed as I expected, this sword should have considerable
power.
When magic power passed from the hilt to the crystal sword core,
amplification would begin. The amplified magical power would then be
stored in the Godsilver blade, allowing it to fire more powerful magical
attacks.
Of course, it also had the ability to act as a magic catalyst, so if I used it to
cast magic, its power would be greatly amplified.
The problem was that I didn't know how powerful it was, so I couldn't
carelessly use it in the city.
What if I accidentally cut the neighbor's house diagonally in half because I
used more power than necessary? Not only my eyes, but my wallet will
probably cry!
Alright, let's name this sword. It's outrageous that a sword that smelled like
a middle schooler's dream would have a normal name.
Hmm, what would it be then? A cool name like Excalibur or Stormbringer
sounded good.
Ah, but wait. I don't know how powerful it was yet, so let's refrain from
giving it a name just yet. If I gave it an exaggerated name only to find out
that it's shabby, it'd be a black stain in my history.
Come to think of it, Zondark asked me to go out with the Knights to
subjugate monsters soon. OK, let's test it there.
=========
[Wow! What is that sword! It's beautiful!]
When I went to the backyard with the bonded sword (provisional) in hand,
Marl noticed it and rushed over.
It seems that she'd been practicing swordsmanship ever since then. Her
cheeks were puffed up and her breathing was a bit labored.
Looking around, Fram was in the corner of the backyard.
[Fram-san said that she wanted to have a look at my swordsmanship!]
I see. Now that I think about it, Fram's Sword Mastery was at level 3.
Perhaps after seeing Marl flail her sword around, she decided to coach her a
bit.
Fram bowed her head silently at my gaze. I responded with a nod.
[Well, this sword is something I made based on my ideas. I'm here to give it
a little swing.]
Saying that, I make a practice swing with Marl.
It's comfortable to swing. The quality was also Transcendent , so the
balance of the blade and whatnot was perfect.
As a test, I tried to pass a little amount of magic power through it, but it was
amplified more than I imagined and the magic power was successfully
stored in the blade.
I wonder what will happen if I send magic at full power. It's a little scary to
wield in the city after all.
Afterward, Marl and I exchanged some blows with wooden swords in a
mock battle.
Marl seemed to be trying to dual wield, as she boldly attacked with wooden
swords in both hands.
It wasn't quite there yet. At her current level, she would be stronger to
attack with only one sword.
[Marl-sama has just learned the basics, so it's better to safe that until after
learning a little more about swordsmanship]
[I think so too, frankly, it's stronger to attack with only one sword.]
[Mugugu, I know.]
Marl nodded in frustration at Fram's and my advice.
That said, it didn't seem like she's giving up. I think it's good to have a
desire to improve.
After that, I washed off my sweat in the bath with Marl, and had dinner.
Today's meal was white rice, steak, and egg soup with kombu dashi. The
food really went well. Rice was still good.
At night, I finally had Marl wear the dancer costume that I had gotten some
time ago.
As expected, it was good. Marl's embarrassed expression was also a plus.
Really more erotic than fully naked.
Taking it off would be outrageous. So I played around and enjoyed it while
the costume was on.
It was really, really good.
Unfortunately, I lost consciousness at the end.
The next day, when I checked Marl's status, her Primordial Magic had been
raised to level 2. I guess that was the reason?
============
Three days later, I went on a joint monster subjugation with the knights.
I'm not trying to be humble, but I'd never ridden a horse. I didn't have the
lofty hobby of horseback riding.
It seemed that horses were used for transportation during the subjugation. If
you couldn't ride a horse, you had no choice but to sit behind a knight.
Marl had horseback riding experience, but not enough to handle war horses.
Therefore, Marl would have no choice but to sit behind a knight.
I wouldn't have that of course. So I used the few skill points I had left to
raise my equestrian level to 2. I now only had 1 skill point left.
[Taichi-san, you said you've never ridden one, but you're really good at it!]
[Hahahaha! Nothing is impossible for me!]
As a matter of fact, horses were useful not only for showing off, but also as
a means of transportation, so I was planning on picking up the equestrian
skills sooner or later.
Things just took a faster turn. Yeah. It's not like I didn't want to see Marl
hugging a random knight's waist.
Now then, let's leave the nonsense out.
We're heading towards the orc village now.
Orcs were humanoid pig monsters with pig-like faces and plump bodies.
In this world, there was a race called beastkin, but these orcs were different
from beastkin.
They cannot be communicated with at all, and attacked and looted human
settlements in groups. It was not uncommon for them to raid wandering
traders and caravans like bandits.
Also, they often used female humans to reproduce. The odds of producing
female orcs were very low.
Overall, they were much stronger and tougher than goblins, so it was
difficult even for seasoned adventurers to crush the village.
[That's basically what orcs are.]
[Do they have any weaknesses?]
[I can't say it's weak to anything in particular. Well, magic in general seems
to work well!]
While talking like that, we headed to the basin where the orc village was
located.
It seems that there used to be a town in this basin, but it was destroyed in
the previous great flooding. Orcs used the destroyed city as a base to cause
damage to the surrounding area.
Until now, it had only been active sporadically, and it seems that it was
somehow managed by the activities of the knights, soldiers, and adventurers
stationed in the surrounding villages and towns, but recently it was reported
that their activity had become more active. .
With the great flooding imminent, the knights were dispatched to
exterminate them all at once.
[Hero-dono, we will be arriving at the camp soon.]
[Got it.]
A knight came running from the front and told me so.
They planned to spend the night at the camp today and arrive at the orc
village around noon the next day to attack.
Once we arrived at the camp, let's use the barrier magic to cover the entire
camp. I should be able to manage even if I expand it a bit. I haven't used
much magic today.
[What do you see?]
[Well, I haven't seen him swing the sword yet, so I can't judge.]
[The new sword was said to have been made by that Hero.]
[It's certainly a work that can't be compared to the swords I've seen so far.
However, it's still unknown how much power he has as a Hero.]
[We'll see tomorrow.]