Lars was currently having a discussion with Tsubaki about how to make magic blades.
And there's another member of the Hephaestus familia that was listening in.
"Welf, listen carefully alright? This guy is the only person in the world besides gods who can make magic weapons." Tsubaki was serious.
"Osu! Please teach us your ways, Lars-sensei!" He bowed deeply at Lars.
"Ey, no need to be so formal. It's just a simple trick you know?" Lars shrugged.
'I have to learn how to make magic weapons. The Crozzo blood that runs in my veins demands it.' Welf clenched his fists.
"I've heard that other members of your familia ridicule you? That you don't like magic weapons?" Lars confronted him.
Welf blinked and Tsubaki just listened in, after all. She was curious why he was there too.
"That's... A weapon should be something that is more valuable than almost anything you can carry in the dungeon.
It's your partner, the tool that keeps monsters at bay. You master it as much as you can to fight more skillfully. A magic weapon that shatters after a few uses is blasphemy against true weapons." Welf finished his monologue.
"Ahhh, he's a hardcore smith huh?" Lars chuckled and Tsubaki nodded.
"That's good and all, Welf. But this world isn't as kind as you think. Instead of thinking it's sacrilege." Lars took out one of his fails.
"Think of it as expendable equipment. Tsubaki here creates throwing knives for Tione. You use them and just forget about them.
But are they blasphemous pieces of crap that goes against everything a weapon should be? Hell no." Lars gave him a reality check.
"You use everything to survive, weapons should be taken care of, yes. But they're just tools in the end. A means to an end." Lars shrugged.
"He's right you know? What if you could've made those magic weapons of yours and you needed at the dungeon? But you didn't bring one?" Tsubaki gave him a scenario.
Welf frowned and Tsubaki laughed. "Yeah, your blacksmith's pride gets absorbed with your corpse in the dungeon."
"And how would you even perfect your craft if you don't try to improve your magic weapons?" Lars asked and he was stumped.
"Well, enough about your motivations. You're here to learn how to make magic weapons." Lars sat down and they listened intently.
"The process goes like this, I infuse my mana into my hammer and think really hard about what I want." Lars took out a piece of iron.
He then heated it with his magic and started whacking it with a hammer.
Sparks of mana erupted at his every strike and the smiths watched in awe.
'It's so refined, so much more efficient. I can't imagine doing that.' Welf now realized that he was using his bloodline as a crutch.
And he had no goddamned idea what the hell a magic weapon is supposed to be.
"Listen, magic comes from your very essence, your soul. Imbuing magic to weapons without intent and your will is equal to a soulless husk." Lars finished up.
He then gave them a small knife that can imbue wind on its blade to make its edge stronger.
"Mana forms magic, and magic is based on your will." Lars released elements on the air and he turned them into doves that flew around.
"You make it obey what you want. And get the result that you want." Lars finished his explanation and they were speechless.
"You fucking suck at teaching, I didn't understand a thing." Tsubaki laughed.
Lars sighed and he expected that. So he gave them some booklets that explained how magic worked.
Unlike congenital magic that just appears out of nowhere, it explains how a person's soul affects the magic that someone gains.
"You can use the principles of this book that I wrote to help you make magic weapons." Lars instructed.
"Aww, I don't want to read..." Tsubaki whined. "Then you can keep that, you helped me a lot after all." Lars gave the knife he made to Tsubaki.
"Yatta! Thanks, lover boy." Tsubaki kissed his cheek and she ran towards her workshop to analyze the thing.
"Thank you very much, sensei." Welf groveled and Lars kicked him.
"I told you, don't be so formal. Stand up you little punk." Lars sighed.
'Hmm, I hope they don't oppose us when the time comes.' Lars thought that they would join Monstro later.
But if they won't, then he's been amassing magic weapons for the xenos for months on end.
Industrializing the process by making the xenos he taught smithing to create the shape of the weapon or armor.
Then, he finishes it up. Giving it magical properties, saving a lot of time.
Welf then left and Lars sat down on a couch. "Good work, I never thought you'd teach my familia members." Hephaestus appeared with some tea.
"Hephy, huh? Making magic weapons and armor normal will decrease the casualties a lot." Lars explained with a shrug.
"What a noble soul you are." She chortled, but she didn't sense a lie. Impressing her a lot.
"Adventurers are the bread and butter of Orario. It won't function without them at all." Lars understood their worth.
And if level 2's could get some contingencies for a pinch, then they'll grow. Gaining more chances to get to level 3.
With better equipment, they get more confident, more bold. Meaning, more excelia and level ups.
They started drinking some tea and went quiet for a moment.
Hephaestus was actually a neurotic woman, second only to Alfia. And she couldn't handle the awkward silence.
Not that it was awkward in the first place, she just thought that things were awkward.
So she stood up, thinking of going back to her office.
But the place being a workshop, there was a piece of metal on the floor that was cylindrical and she slipped on it.
"Hephy!" Lars caught her immediately. Hephaestus also moved to defend her head.
But her hand brushed against the clasps of her blindfold and with an audible clack, it unraveled.
Her eyes went as wide as saucers and she went deathly pale.
'N-no... He saw it... My cursed eye. Now, he'll run away and would never want to see me again!' Hephaestus was in despair.
"A curse?" Lars raised a brow at it and Hephaestus was shocked that he just didn't throw her to the side and ran away.
"Damn, that's a nasty curse isn't it?" Lars rubbed his chin as he looked at its composition.
"Y-you aren't afraid?" Hephaestus asked with a terrified expression.
"Hmm? Why would I be? It's not like I'm the one getting cursed. This must be quite unpleasant for you, huh?" Lars sighed.
He just saw a lady's secret. And it must be a well kept secret too.
"N-no! I don't mind you seeing it..." Hephaestus began to calm down.
"Hey, I'm thinking of using something, do you promise you won't tell anyone?" Lars asked her and she blinked.
Hephaestus nodded and Lars grabbed her face softly.
"Now, I don't want you struggling okay? This is just going to take a moment." Lars took out a vial from his inventory.
It was a potent neurotoxin that deadens nerves.
He then splashed some of it on her right eye that was cursed.
"Itadakimasu." Lars put his lips on her eye socket.
"Eh?" Hephaestus was confused as hell and Lars started sucking out the curse from her eye.
Consuming the curse alongside her eldritch looking eye like it was spaghetti and meatballs.
Hephaestus was frozen in place and Lars licked his lips as he wiped her face.
"Sorry about getting some saliva on you, I hope you don't mind?" Lars grinned as pink light shone brightly on his back.
'Damn, it's going to take some time to consume this curse... It's divine in nature.' Lars grinned at the prospect of being able to use curses.
"W-what just happened?" Hephaestus was still in shock.
"Ohh yeah, I have to heal you up." Lars took out some elixirs and he combined it with his blood.
Marie has been giving him her blood as tribute these past couple of years.
And his regeneration was starting to get ridiculous.
"Here, this conction will start the regeneration process." Lars wounded her eye socket a bit to open up wounds.
He then poured the elixir in to start growing a new eye for her.
"It'll take some time, but you'll have a new eye in no time." Lars smiled at her and she just stared at him.
Like a deer caught in headlights, she was in a daze.
"Don't believe me? Here, look at your eye." Lars took out a mirror and she saw her reflection.
Her eye socket was still empty, but it didn't have the curse on it anymore.
It didn't look like an eldritch abomination that settled in her eye.
"I... I look normal." Hephaestus touched her right eye all over.
"Yes, you are." Lars nodded at her. "I don't have that curse anymore." Hephaestus couldn't believe it.
"Yeah, I removed it." Lars nodded again. "I'm not ugly anymore..." Hephaestus started crying.
"Well, you weren't ugly before. The curse just put a blemish on you. If you hid it, you'll be beautiful." Lars shrugged.
Hephaestus then glared at him. "Shouldn't you be saying that I'm beautiful no matter what?"
"Ha? Are you stupid? Of course it didn't look good. People who say otherwise are fucking lying." Lars was blunt as hell.
"What? Are you going to ask if I would take care of you if you were a worm next? Stop asking stupid questions, woman." Lars rolled his eyes.
"Y-you... Thank you." Hephaestus hugged him tightly.
"Yeah, you're welcome. It was the least I could do." Lars rubbed her back as she cried on his shoulder.
She then got conscious, thinking she hugged him for too long.
"Uhhh, how am I going to repay you for this?" Hephaestus fidgeted around.
"Well, you can arm my familia for free." Lars had a price immediately.
"Shouldn't you say that it's free and you did it for me?" Hephaestus deadpanned at him.
'This guy is definitely killing the romantic mood here...' Hephaestus was exasperated.
"Yeah, but that just won't be true. I know what I want, Hephy." Lars raised her chin and she froze.
Blushing like a tomato, she was rizzed out of her mind. 'H-he's so cool and handsome...'
She was in a daze, daydreaming about how they'll go on dates and make out with each other.
"I'll visit every week to replenish your elixir stock. Use it like eye drops on your right eye socket three times a day so you can regrow it." Lars thought he was like a doctor.
Giving out a prescription or something. "Okay..." Hephaestus nodded with a beaming smile at him.
__Babel, a year and a half later.__
Hephaestus was currently waiting for someone.
"I guess it should be time?" Hephaestus lost some of her edge and she was more relaxed, happy, content.
And she didn't wear her eyepatch anymore, showing her brand new eye that surprised the gods.
"Hmmm, she's a bit late. I want to introduce her to Lars." Hephaestus was all smiles.
Waiting for a special friend that supported her a lot.
A beam of light came from the sky and the altar in front of Hephaestus formed particles of light.
Like a sailor moon transformation or something.
(Pic)
Somebody materialized and it was a god from tenkai.
"Yo, Hestia. It's been a long time." Hephaestus greeted the girl that appeared.
"Hephaestus... It's only been what? A couple of decades? Wait... Ahh!" Hestia pointed at her face.
"Un, a child cured it for me. He's really amazing." Hephaestus put her hand on her cheek as she blushed.
"H-Hephaestus... Looking like a maiden in love. That neurotic woman." Hestia couldn't believe how much she changed.
"What do you mean neurotic? You monster virgin." Hephaestus huffed at her.
"Like that's a bad thing!" Hestia rebutted. "You, Artemis, and Athena are more likely to watch civilizations end than get laid." Hephaestus sighed.
She felt how good it feels to like someone. And she thought that they were missing out.
"S-shut up! I'm finally free from tenkai. You'll see, I'll have a lovey dovey experience too!" Hestia glared at her.
And unlike Artemis and Athena, Hestia in this world didn't really make vows of being chaste.
She was just too much of a NEET that was too focused on guarding the eternal flame.
Until Prometheus brought it to the mortal world millennia ago that is.
__
Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.