Prytaneum
Mixing
"You've been up since four?" Welf asked incredulously before pausing, as if trying to make sense of that. "…Why?"
"Training," I said. "Besides, I don't think you're one to talk. When was the last time you slept?"
"Doesn't matter," He replied, shaking his head firmly. "Staying up all night and getting up before dawn are two completely different things, Percy. One's okay, the other's not."
I snorted at that, rolling my eyes.
"If you say so," I said, taking a seat in my friend's forge. Even after going back home to take a shower, both to wash up after the training session and recover from it, I still felt tired, and I didn't feel quite up to arguing yet. Still, I'd made progress today and I'd more or less figured out how to use Thetis…I guess. I wasn't quite sure on when and where to use it, given its limitations, but I figured it was better to have it up my sleeve than not. If nothing else, it would have helped a lot in the Goliath fight.
"I do," He said—and if I felt tired, he looked exhausted, as if he was struggling just to stand. His eyes seems bloodshot, his arms hung heavily at his side, and he blinked slowly as he spoke, like he was struggling to focus on anything. For all of that, he looked excited enough that it burned through all of that and managed to somehow make him look enthusiastic. "Besides, I couldn't sleep. Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for this?"
He gestured towards a side of his forge as he spoke, indicating the crude pile of items that had been stacked haphazardly there. A pair of metal boots sat on a shield, one standing upright and another falling over. A breastplate of some kind was propped up, neck filled with several swords, a spear, an axe, and several weapons I didn't know the names of, like a multi-sectioned staff, a blade and chain, and several more. Bits of armor were scattered around it, along with smaller weapons like daggers, along with another pair of boots, several other shields, and various odds and ends. Usually, Welf was very careful when handling his work, but it seemed almost as if he'd dumped them there randomly just so they were out of the way and then moved on to the next item.
Well, I guess I could understand that.
"You've been busy," I said, smiling at Welf. At times like these, he reminded me almost of my brother, Tyson. More painfully, he also reminded me of Beckendorf. "Having fun with your new Ability?"
"Yeah," He said, wiping his face with a cloth on his workplace that was already filled with black stains. "I told you I had a lot of ideas, right? And once I started, I just couldn't stop—and I'm not even close to done yet."
"Just don't overwork yourself," I said. "You're going to need to sleep eventually."
"And I will," He said, blinking quickly. "Eventually."
I eyed him for a moment and thought about arguing. Then, I thought it'd be a lot more effective to just tell Hephaestus or something and make her do it, so I shrugged.
"Can you show any of it to me?" I asked. "Or is it a secret?"
"Why would it be secret?" He asked, beaming like a child at the question before moving over to the pile. "It's all basic work, I admit, but you have to start with the basics, right? I told you how Blacksmith works, didn't I?"
"A little bit," I said. "But you said you weren't sure about all the details."
"Yeah, well, I didn't have it at the time, you know?" He said. "But it's like…hm. It's still hard to describe, but it's really like giving an item a Skill. Some special ability that sets it apart, forged into it, instead of just the metal. When I make this stuff, I almost feel like I'm giving the weapons a Status. I'm not though—that's your shield's thing, I think. As expected of Hephaestus, really. For these things, there's just one thing that sets them apart, beyond the improvements to my work from having Blacksmith. Like this sword here? It's the most basic of the basics; I just made it sharper, so that it cuts better. This one, I made tougher, so it'll be harder to break, while I made this spear seem lighter for its size. I did the opposite for this ax here; its super heavy, way more than it should be, but if you can lift it and swing it, you could probably chop a Hard Armored in half."
Welf went through the items quickly, removing the swords, spear, and the ax and setting them aside, never pausing as he spoke.
"I tried something different with this boots here, just to test things out," He said. "Still nothing much, but these ones should be quiet, even if you're running on stone, so I thought they'd be good for those who try and avoid notice. This set, however, is made for running on uneven ground, so it should help whoever wears it keep balance, even in the Dungeon. I think I'll make some that help with actual running next, though. If I use Almiraj fur, it should be possible, I think…? The materials used matter, you see. The things I can bring out depends on both the strength of the metal and the types of drops I forge into it. I made those daggers from some of the Hellhound Fangs we had and I managed to bring out a pretty good fire element from them, enough to at least make them burn when they cut."
"Cool," I said before nodding towards the stuff in the center of the pile. "What about the armor?"
"Oh, that," He said. "That's just practice. I'll probably hand it over to the guys at the shop; it's not my best, but it'll probably sell. I wanted to figure out exactly what I could do before making your next set, though. The stuff I make is still third rate, but I have my pride as a smith, you know?"
"I think the stuff you make is pretty great, Welf," I said, shrugging a shoulder. "I'll wear whatever it is."
"You say that, but with everything that's happened, I'm not sure how I'm going to try and keep you safe, man," He said, sighing.
"Don't worry about doing the impossible," I replied. "Just make it as durable as you can."
"Mm, I'm trying," He said, seeming to barely hear my words. "But it's not quite that simple. There are a lot of ways to handle something like this and I've been going through the methods. That one there I just made more durable, so it's really tough for what it is…but it's not as tough as that one, which I made differently. See, it doesn't look much different, but its heavy, like forty pounds just for a breastplate—but damn if it isn't tough. But wearing a full set of armor like that will make it harder to move easily, right? So I've been experimenting and trying to strike a balance. That one's not as durable, but it's as light as a feather, so I could make a really large set of armor and offset most of the weight, while that one's really tough, but brittle. It'll take much as the really heavy one without a scratch and it doesn't weigh much more than anything else, but if it takes a hard enough hit or it's struck in the wrong place, it'll just shatter. I'm thinking, I might be able to make something that's not designed to last but which can take a lot in the short term, maybe even match second-rate armor, but…what do you think?"
Well, first of all, I thought that I had no idea what pieces he was referring to, because he wasn't pointing out anything at all. He was just saying 'that one', as if I'd magically know. Beyond that, I was just kind of lost in general, because I had no idea how that was supposed to work and, frankly, I didn't really think it was wise to tell a smith how to do their job.
"I have no idea," I said out loud, telling the truth. "But I really do think that whatever you decide upon will probably be best. Are you going to make it with Minotaur Horns again?"
"Yeah," He replied with a nod. "Of all the drops we've gathered, it's probably the best—and we've got a lot of them now, too. Lili was gathered them from the bodies when we got stuck on the seventeenth it seems, and between them and the ones from last time, we've got a lot. Enough that I could almost make a set of armor out of nothing but them, which is about as close to ideal as we can get right now. I told you about the adamantite inside the drops of certain monsters, didn't I? It's not as good as the pure stuff you can find in the Deep Floors, but it's still pretty great, all things considered. Minotaur Horns have a little bit inside them and so do Hellhound Fangs, so you can literally melt and forge them if you know how. As armor goes, I should be able to draw out something pretty great from that, and it should be pretty resistant to fire just because of what it's made out of. A part of me wants to go and emphasize that as much as possible, but focusing on durability…you worked so hard getting all that stuff, I don't want to waste it."
"Eh," I said. "You don't have to worry too much about stuff like that now. Even if we got in a lot of trouble before, we're both Level 2 now and with our new skills, we should be okay if we're just fighting Minotaurs again. You don't have to think too hard about it, because once we're ready to go back, I'm sure we'll be able to get more."
"That's true…" He mused before smiling. "And how cool is it that we've got matching skills? My Damon and your Pythias seem like they were made to go together."
"I'm pretty sure they were," I said, though he didn't seem to be listening.
"And their descriptions," He continued. "What do you think a 'dramatic' increase is? A couple ranks? Five?"
"I don't know," I said. "It's not like we can really check our Status mid-fight, anyway. But it sounds like it'd be a lot, doesn't it? We should be able to fight pretty well together, once we go back."
"Yeah," He said before clapping, as if just remembering something. Reaching behind the pile of items he'd made, he lifted a bag and opened it. "Hey, speaking of which, can you hold onto these for me?"
I immediately recognized what was inside, by now fairly familiar with them. Swords with crystal blades—Crozzo's magic swords. Three of them, to be precise; a red blade, a green blade, and a blue blade. I blinked at them and then raised my eyes to meet my friends.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked him.
"I'm sure. I don't want to get robbed again, after what happened last time," He said with a scowl. "And with this whole mess, I'm sure half the city has heard about me by now. Probably won't be too long until they find out about this place, too. I doubt anyone would strike about the Hephaestus Familia directly, but I don't want them to steal them when I'm not looking and carrying them around town would be a bit…"
"I get that," I replied. "But…it wasn't what I meant."
Welf looked away.
"Like I said, I'm sure," He murmured. "What happened before, I won't let happen again. Even if I hate it and I'm still…"
I closed my eyes and nodded, sighing.
"If it's like that, than okay," I said. "But in that case, we should figure out a good place to hide them. I don't really want to carry them around everywhere either. I guess we could give them to Mrs. O'Leary? If anything happens, she could bring them to us fast."
"I still need to make something for her, too," Welf mused. "Oh, speaking of making things, have you had any ideas."
You could tell how tired Welf was by how quickly he got distracted, I thought. It was a little worrying and I wanted to tell him to sleep, but something like that would have been a bit hypocritical coming from me, for various reasons.
"For Mystery, you mean?"
He nodded.
"Yeah," He said. "Something we can work together on. I mean, I may still be a rookie smith, but between my Blacksmith and your Mystery, I bet we could make some amazing stuff. The things you're able to make now could probably match or surpass a Level 3 smith in terms of price, and working together…well, who knows. Mystery is so rare and horded so carefully, I'm not sure how often it's been tried. Any ideas for what to make?"
I heaved a long sigh and shook my head.
"No," I told him. "I tried a few things, but I'm not sure where to even get started.
"Sounds rough," He said. "I've always known what I could make, if not precisely how. You tell me to make a sword, I can make a sword. But if you tell someone to just make anything, that gets a bit trickier. And because Mystery's as rare as it is, it's hard to really guess what it's capable of. But why don't you start with what you know and go from there?"
"Hm?" I wondered. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you're…" He trailed off, gesturing at me vaguely. "You know. Have you seen any magical items before? Maybe that'll give you some ideas."
I whistled and shook my head.
"Wow," I said. "Uh, let's see. Where to begin?"