C30: New Gear, Keeping Busy, Magic Item Creation
Word count = 2274 on 1/31/2024
The next day is finally the day that Axel returns to the dungeon since his recent level up. His party meets up near the tower. Axel had just finished resupplying his sack with potions before handing it over to Daisy except for his own emergency potions he keeps on himself.
"So what have you two been doing in the past week I haven't seen you?" Axel asks while he describes how he mostly focused on his own magical studies, adjusting to his new strength and even learning a new spell, Reinforcement magic. A type of magic that is focused on strengthening or at least enhancing the performance of any material it affects. Though since this is a simple and complicated spell, he can only affect his own equipment or others but not his own body, yet. It's simple because he can affect a whole object like a sword as long as he has mind but a human body is harder as the possibility of undoing the reinforcement needs to be done as otherwise the risk of turning into a dense flesh statue is possible.
Welf on the other hand looks miserable as he complains about Senji (Muramasa) berating him for being useless in the dungeon and in crafting. Daisy is dreamfully looking at Welf as he talks before attention is brought back to her and she explains that she has seemed to find her calling with the crossbow and has gotten a much bigger one as she has replaced her hand crossbow.
It seems her new crossbow was made by Welf himself. Daisy is also now sporting a new cloak made out of the hide of the half black goliath that was left behind upon its death. Welf also wears a few pieces as he had them intertwined with his own kimono, mostly his weak points which are around the guts, and arms. His kimono is definitely more pathwork but that is due to the random chunks of hide. Its defensive properties are no joke.
Axel had his own gear fixed up by Senji when he was seemingly still unconscious after fighting the goliath so he had no real changes to his gear as they are still solidly made by Senji Muramasa.
With the discussion finished, they make their way to the dungeon. Their pacing is much faster as Axel gets more used to using his shades in combat. He finds that his gluttony shade can outright make most monsters anorexic with a single punch. Yet the monster core dropped is so abysmally small that they turn to dust from any impact, even being picked up can count. His parasitic shade makes severing monsters into chunks easy. Which is good for clearing out lots of the early floors as they arent strong enough to withstand even one hit. It's only once they encounter orcs that it takes more than one strike from the sharp blades to kill. But just because it can survive one blade, what about a second? What about a third? The more he cuts, the more chunks of flesh are just ripped off from the tiny thorns he adjusted into the sharp blades, it makes it so that it's hard for the blades to be pulled out but he does it anyway and meat sacks are sent flying. Even infant dragons cant withstand the blades due to Axel now being level 3.
As for the elvish blue shade, it simply creates shockwave attacks that more often than not just immediately cause monsters to explode into dust. It's a very satisfying, bloodless kill that Daisy comments on being the most pleasing while Welf is impressed by the power of the parasite blades. He asks if he could study it for some time as it could give him inspiration but Axel comments that they can't be taken off as it's part of the shades body. Welf flops over disappointed before rising once more to put more energy into combat as a monster horde approaches.
Recently Welf has been carrying around magic swords which he mostly gives to Daisy to carry in her slightly larger sack now. He does carry one on him though for emergencies. He seems to feel guilty for forcing Axel to support the team all by himself and wants to contribute. This is enough for him to actually break through his own hatred for the swords. Especially if he wants to protect Daisy.
Regardless of their issues or motivations, they still strive forward and after a few hours reach Rivira. They pass by the giant sword which is still a giant attraction for the locals and various craftsmen who have set up half of a second town here for everyone camping out around the sword. They are still occasionally trying to break it down or at least study it as the supposed new metal is a heavy attraction for them if they can somehow break down the sword to make new equipment or at least make new equipment from whatever this alloy is.
Axel's group is not noticed as there are always plenty of adventurers walking around. Some pay a visit to the sword in awe but nobody tries to touch the sword as it's considered effectively a divine artifact. Axel himself wonders if he could be able to lift the sword through reinforcement magic but he is still an amateur with it so that is a hope for the future. He still needs to learn some sort of spatial magic to even be able to take it out.
The group spends an hour to rest before making their way out. Axel knows that to get stronger, he has to go deeper but his group isn't ready for that just yet. As such, Axel's speed would slow down a bit as he can only naturally gain Excellia which is the same speed as everyone else's as unless he fights the goliath again he would likely not get any Excellia from his gluttony skill as the monsters are too weak now.
Once the group returns to the surface, they go their separate ways to rest up as the schedule from before monsterphilia is back in effect. Thus every other day he still has magic lessons with Kaoruko but those sessions are slightly shorter to account for Axel having to set up his tools such as creating a silver elven hammer. Creating the cast for the magic artifacts he wants to make and then melting down the various scraps of iron that Adelaide had found for him from a local scrapyard. Mostly bad swords and armors that Hephastus threw out as trash.
All this was melted down and the initial work on the magic items was completed but then came the tricky part of inscribing the magic sigils onto the artifacts along with the general energy rune so that even non spellcasters amongst citizens and adventurers can even drive their mind into the artifacts to activate them. The second touch up is to add a control rune so that the power of the spell just as the area it can affect or its power can be adjustable. He has to balance all 3 of these things as any imperfections outright blows up the rings in magical outbursts which luckily for cleanse spells was just neutral energy so Axel and the others in the store were just pushed around a bit by the dense energy. Though a few random vials and other nearby glass objects shattered or fell over.
Axel takes this as valuable lessons as he messes up here then it will be less disastrous once he implements elemental or other spells he may learn. He ruined a few batches of rings and unfortunately the metals used turn to dust in the explosion as they break down from the mana overload. So they could not be reused after failure but there are plenty of probational members of the Hephastus familia so that means a lot of scrap to use.
Once enough artifacts were made, Axel had the smart idea to return to the Daedelus street church and offer a few of the cleansing spell artifacts and money in exchange for the kids to work as poster children to spread the news of the rings being sold and where. The kids are already mostly invincible in Daedelus as long as they don't steal from someone here. So with a deadline set up for the 'grand reopening' of Adelaide's trinket store. He gets started on making more artifacts as he doubts a few handful of artifacts could be enough to satisfy all of Orario and perhaps even outside cities if merchants try to collaborate with them.
While Axel spends his time making artifacts, dungeoneering and refining his reinforcement magic control. Raikou on the other hand has sent out letters or met with her fellow immortals for an unknown reason. The discussions and negotiations held behind these closed doors shall remain secret for a bit longer.
After 5 days since receiving the invitation. Axel had to call off the dungeon and magic lessons to fully handle the grand reveal of the magic items. A sizable gathering has grown due to the children's hard work which earned them an extra tip in addition to anything they were able to 'acquire' in selling the information to certain organizations. People that tried to rush in beforehand found that the store itself was closed with signs showing the information for the grand reveal date. Some bandits or members of the black market tried to sneak or break in, in hopes of potentially stealing the artifacts but they didn't know what they were looking for and Mash did her due diligence and promptly executed shield bash a few hundred times upon these fools. They learned their lesson or were crippled until they learned. As such, news spread around Orario of a new magic item maker and how they would be marketed to common folk as well as adventurers.
Orario was metaphorically set ablaze as both gods and mortals wanted such items. A small platform was set up in front of the store for the showcasing. While on the side is a sign that asked people to dirty it up ahead of time. The reason why anyone bothered to participate in this is that they got a few Vali for hitting the target but not everyone has good accuracy so everyone got to dirty up the sign board very well for the presentation.
Adelaide has tears in her eyes as she reminisces on the attention her store is getting as well as Axel's contributions even though she has been able to help very little and he has not received any benefits yet. He had been spending money on the stage, the sign board, paying the orphanage as well as a few other materials such as the silver used for his own hammer. The only thing she could help was with tedious little things and just providing the working environment. He had even helped pay Mash for her as they do have a business agreement on top of their friendship. Mash has to eat and needs a place to sleep as well.
The day finally arrives just 3 days before the Denatus is underway. Axel, Adelaide and Mash are all dressed up nicely, though Mash is still carrying her sizable shield around for protection. The final preparations had already been completed, the audience had arrived and amongst them is the god Hermes and his familia captain Asfi Al Andromeda who is also a renowned magic item maker but on a more personal scale. They can come to watch the spectacle. The magic items production was semi ready for large production and selling though not the level of mass production.[1]
The crowd that was talking amongst themselves is hushed as Adelaide makes her way onto the stage. She begins to speak.
"I welcome everyone here to Adelaide's Trinket store. I am the proprietress, Adelaide. My story is a homely little jewelry store before we met the magic item maker you all will meet later. He chose my quant little store to serve as the station for his creations. I believe his work will revolutionize Orario at its core. Now let's give a round of applause for the renowned craftsman you have all been waiting for, Axel Gram!!!" She hypes up the crowd which claps or cheers as Axel talks up the stage. He is carrying a tall box with him that he sets center stage. There is a pillow and veil on top of the box. He spread out his arms.
"Welcome everyone to the grand showcasing we have created here today. I thank Adelaide for her hard work and I won't beat around the bush in regards to the product. The items themselves vary from one another as there are a few different ones available. By this, I mean that each item has a magic spell engraved upon it. These are spell holding accessories that allow anyone with enough mind to be able to cast." he says and takes off the veil upon the pedestal.
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[1] The difference between large and mass production that i'm referring to here is that Axel can make the items with relative ease but not hundreds or whatever at a time as they don't have the tech tree unlocked far enough to be able to make that. Mash and Adelaid can make the template items but Axel himself has to engrave them but he has gotten better at it over time.