“This place is kind of creepy,” says Rhine, walking behind Hineni as they go through the seating area with all of the tables. They walk past the broken window, but Hineni doesn’t mention it.

He turns around. “This is my family home.”

“Your family home is creepy,” replies Rhine, looking up at the high rafters above them. Obscura, having been behind them before, is now sitting up there, watching them with wide eyes. Rhine yelps, ducking behind Hineni.

“Who~”

Their frog hunt had been successful, honestly. Rhine’s river magic, while impractical in many settings, is ironically extremely well suited to hunting frogs. By causing a cascade of water to rise up, he could flood the pond and cause all of the surprised frogs to scramble out from the water and to the edge, where they could be easily caught.

Now, was this an important thing for them to have spent their evening doing? No, honestly not. But Hineni had fun and he thinks Obscura did too, though she seems to have taken a liking to scaring Rhine, who seems particularly jumpy around her. Then again, Hineni supposes that this is a reasonable reaction. She is a literal deity and Rhine is a child. Plus Obscura is certainly a little… intimidating, especially with her talons. Her interest in spooking him doesn’t help of course.

Anyways, given his own lack of terror, maybe he himself is just the one who’s weird? Though, maybe he's just adjusted to her now. “This is where we’ll be working,” says Hineni.

“What’s our job?”

“Making weapons,” explains the man, looking back up towards the rafters. Obscura is gone. But there is a clamber coming from the kitchen, so he supposes that she got back to her cooking.

“Huh? I don’t know how to do that,” says Rhine.

“That’s fine,” he says. “How good are you at chopping wood?”

Rhine scratches his cheek. “Uh, I’ve never chopped wood before.”

Hineni stares at the boy for a moment. “Can you gather materials from the dungeon?”

“No. I mean… yes, I mean… uh…” Rhine fidgets. “I can go down to floor three.”

“That’s not very far,” replies Hineni, sitting down at his favorite booth. He gestures at the spot across from him. He isn’t sure, but he’s confident that he could get deeper than that by himself. Then again, he is older. “What can you do then?”

“Do you have any river-related work?” asks Rhine, sitting down.

“I do not,” replies Hineni dryly. He rubs his forehead. It’s still hard for him to talk to people like this, even if the person he’s talking to is someone as young as Rhine, but he’s fighting his way through it. “Where do you live?” asks Hineni. “There’s got to be something?”

“I live in the tower-quarter,” replies Rhine.

Hineni claps his hands together once, pulling them apart. Ah, of course. It’s obvious, of course a naturally powerful, if not untrained, caster like Rhine lives in the tower-quarter. The boy’s robe looks a bit worn and raggedy, but the material is an expensive one. “You’re a magical crafter? Are you willing to learn to enchant weapons?” asks Hineni.

Rhine shakes his head. “No, uh, I can’t.”

“But you live in the tower-quarter?” asks Hineni, somewhat confused. “Everyone there is a crafter?”

“Uh…” Rhine rubs his arm. “My parents are there. I haven’t really started.”

“WHO~!” blurts out Obscura from the side, appearing very suddenly from next to them. Rhine lets out a terrified yelp and scrambles away across the bench. The two of them look at her, one of them terrified and one of them confused. “Fear! Fear Obscura!” she hoots, flapping her arms.

“Hey,” says Hineni, poking a finger into her fluff. “Don’t be mean.”

“WHO~” argues Obscura, her body transforming from her humanish shape into the form of a giant owl that towers above the table, as she bends over forward and looms over Rhine, her eyes wide and shining with a haunting, yellow glow. “Fear! Mighty Obscura!” Rhine is pressed as far back against the wall as he can go, shaking in terror.

Hineni sighs, having already gotten up, he is now pushing his way back in past Obscura, as he squeezes himself back into the booth, pressing himself through the fluff of her leg. There is a clacking of glassware being set on the table as he puts down the food that Obscura had cooked and brought, but left hidden one booth away so that she could come over and scare Rhine one more time.

“Mighty Obscura burnt this one,” says Hineni, lifting up one of the pancakes, covered in syrup and ground up nuts. Obscura turns her massive head his way, looking down at him. “See?” asks Hineni, pointing at the pancake she had tried to hide by putting it in the middle of the stack. A very wise thing to try and do.

There is an explosion of feathers and a second later, Obscura is gone, leaving only Rhine and Hineni and a single feather that lands down on top of the pancakes.

“Don’t mind her. She’s weird,” says Hineni, pulling the sticky feather off of them and setting it to the side.

Rhine looks at him with horrified eyes. “Should you…” he lowers his voice. “Should you be talking about a god like that?” he whispers, his eyes shifting around as if they were being watched. Which they are, actually.

In all honesty, no. If any of the other servants of the other gods said something bad about their patrons, it’s very much in the realm of possibilities that they simply would stop existing. In a sense, gods are, given their nature, above the law. Murder is as illegal for them as for anyone else, but who is going to storm the palace of a literal god and arrest them? Nobody, that’s who. But Hineni has accepted his fate. If Obscura wants to eat him for calling her weird, then that’s fine. Besides -

“It’s okay,” he says. “I’m weird too.” He takes a fork, setting a few cakes on each of the three plates. “Thank you for cooking. They look great,“ he says. “Are you going to eat with us?“ asks Hineni, looking down beneath the table where he can feel her moving around. A small feathery head peeks up from the side, clicking its beak angrily as the small owl glares at him with furious eyes. “If you’re mean to someone,” explains Hineni. “Expect meanness to come back to you.”

“Respectless Hineni!” complains the owl. “Hineni is granted Obscura’s gifts! Obscura’s presence! Obscura’s love!” she hoots. “But he is mean! Bully! Bully Hineni!”

Hineni raises an eyebrow. “If that’s a ‘no’, then I guess I’ll just eat these three too?” he says, pointing at her plate. This doesn’t seem to impress her. But Hineni knows what her weak spot is. “Actually. I think I’ll just eat one of yours,” he says. “That way I’ll have four and you’ll only have t -”

Before he can finish his sentence, Obscura is sitting next to him, shifting back into her human form. But she keeps the glare on her eyes. “Reverence! Obscura is divine! Obscura demands reverence!” she complains. Hineni gestures across the table to Rhine, who is sitting there, quite literally shaking in his boots that appear to be a little too big for him. “Good! Fear! Fear Obscura, little human!” she says, staring at him and moving her head in a circle above her stack of pancakes.

Hineni sighs. Apparently she’s going to have to get used to being around people, just like himself. Oh well, it’s something that they can work on together. A couples’ project, if you will. He puts three cakes onto Rhine’s plate. Not one more and not one less.

It is nighttime. Hineni hammers away in the forge. Today, he’s making something different.

The man wipes his sweaty forehead on his arm, turning his gaze to look at the custom order that had been pinned up on the board of the adventurer’s guild. The sheet of paper is now up on the wall, by his work-table.

A scythe. It’s unusual for farmers to put in orders at the guild, but not unheard of. What is unusual though is the material.

Hineni’s gaze sinks back to the piece of burning hot metal clasped in his tongs. Despite the incredible heat radiating from it, it doesn’t emit a glow of any kind. It just looks like it always does. Sleek, silvery. It’s not as rough looking as iron and carries a strangely polished sheen to it, even after the heat and all of his hammering.

- [Cobalt-Chromium Ingot] -

- Quality -

Normal

- Composition - Cobalt: 62% Chromium: 28% Molybdenum 6% Magnese: 1% Silcion: 1% Iron: 0.5% Nickel: 0.5% Impurities: 1%

- Quality Effects -

None

- Cobalt-Chromium -

DARK affinity

A rare, mid-level material. Cobalt-chrome is a fusion of cobalt and chromium and carries a very high specific, tensile strength. Weight: 1.0kg Value: 684 Obols

Hineni returns to his work, hammering the bar into shape, into the form of a curved blade. He isn’t sure where a farmer found this, but that isn’t his question to ask. They probably dug it up from their field or got it from some passing adventurer or something. It’s a rare material, even if it is only a small ingot that doesn't have a standardized size. It makes sense, he supposes, for a farmer to want a tool to be made with an expensive metal. The effects could potentially be very useful for the work and metals like this are often more durable as well. Though he isn't too sure about the dark affinity and if it’s wise to have near a harvest. Oh well, that isn’t his problem to worry about.

After dinner, Hineni had sent Rhine home, telling him to come back tomorrow evening. By then, he’ll have thought of some work that the boy can do. Obscura had overridden his suggestion, saying that she will have something for him to serve her with.

The man glances over his shoulder, seeing Obscura there up by the window. She’s staring out of it, out into the night. Feeling him watching, she looks down at him and Hineni in turn looks back down at his work, continuing on.

They still hadn’t really talked about what happened the other night and he has the feeling that it’s going to happen again tonight. The lack of talking, that is. But also the other thing.

Feeling a new resurgence of energy, Hineni strikes the hammer down again with more vigor, finally getting the metal to flatten a little.

What a troublesome material. Hineni has been spending the last while just hammering and hammering away. It’s certainly very durable. Cobalt-chromium, huh?

The man tilts his head, looking at the half-worked blade that is slowly starting to make itself seen. He wouldn’t mind having more of this stuff. Mid-level materials are certainly interesting.

Then again…

Hineni lifts his gaze, staring around his forge. It’s a solid structure. His tools and working areas are all solid and offer a strong foundation. But really it’s only suited for lower level metals. His forge doesn’t get hot enough for most metals already into the mid-range area and his perfectly-normal hammer isn’t really capable of forming some kinds of magical materials.

But he mostly works with iron and sometimes some copper and for those two things, his set-up is very well suited. But maybe if he wants to advance more, in his crafting and in his work, he doesn’t just need to step up in his own personal life, but also in his work. Hineni picks up the unfinished blade with his tongs, looking at it. It’s lumpy. Imperfect. Unfinished.

A gust of soft wind moves next to him. Hineni turns his head, seeing Obscura floating there in her humanish form, upside down, her hood dangling down towards the ground.

There’s something that’s been gnawing at him for a while now. “So why weapons?” asks Hineni, looking at her and then back at the scythe. “Why didn’t you make me an armorsmith or something like that?” he asks.

Obscura blinks, tilting her head. She lifts one of her taloned hands, holding it in front of his face as she pokes his nose with a long, curved talon. “Sharp,” she hoots. “Obscura has sharp,” she explains. With her other hand, she grabs Hineni’s free hand and holds it against her robe, pressing down against the fluffy layer of feathers beneath it. “Soft. Obscura is soft.” Hineni blinks, staring at her, not really understanding what she means this time. “Hineni must be sharp,” she says, holding his hand and squeezing it. The talon that was on his nose, lowers itself down to his chest. “But soft.”

He nods, understanding her point half-way at least. She wants him to be ready for some inevitable coming of some bad thing into his life. But at the same time, that he doesn’t let that preparation harden him to the point of self-destruction.

“But why weapons?” he asks. It’s not that he minds. He’s just curious.

She floats around him, still upside-down, letting go of his hand. Hineni sets the blade back down with the tongs onto the anvil. “To hunt,” she hoots, vanishing by the time he looks back her way.

Several hours later, three, in fact, Hineni stands there, staring at the blade with pride. It’s razor sharp and curved inwardly at a slight angle, like a keen talon. Though… somehow… it’s bigger than he had expected it to be. A lot bigger. It’s almost like there is more blade than he had had material.

- [Cobalt-Chromium Blade {Scythe}] -

- Quality -

Normal

- Composition - Cobalt: 62% Chromium: 28% Molybdenum 6% Magnese: 1% Silcion: 1% Iron: 0.5% Nickel: 0.5% Impurities: 1%

- Quality Effects -

“Chosen of the owl-god”

Adds additional attributes to the attached weapon - Title Effect - “Gift of the owl-god” +3 OBSCURANTISM +3 WIND DMG +3 LUK

- Material Effect -

At night:

Blade-size *2 + 2 DARK 9 PHYSICAL DMG A razor sharp, curved blade, meant for a scythe. ‘Made by weaponsmith Hineni - Chosen of the Owl God’ Weight: 1.0kg Durability: 20/20 Value: 1045 Obols

It’s powerful. Very powerful. Iron is great and all, but it really does lack in a lot of ways.

The man tilts his head. What’s with this odd effect? Double sized at night?

He rubs his forehead, running his fingers through his sooty, black hair. “How am I supposed to attach this to a shaft?” he mutters to himself. Foregoing the larger problem of how to even make a curved pole to attach a scythe to, which he has never made before, let alone out of wood; how is he going to secure a blade that changes size to it? The man sighs a troubled sigh, but still, this was good work for one night. Really good work.

“Sorry,” says Hineni. “I think I’ll only manage one of these,” he says, turning to look up at Obscura. But she isn’t there at the window, rather, she’s hanging right there, in front of his face, floating upside down in her human form.

“Three?” she asks.

“Just one,” he says, eyeing her carefully, feeling a little worried that she’s going to have another fit.

“Hineni makes three!” she protests.

“I only have the materials for one,” he argues. “The order only came with one ingot.” She doesn’t seem very pleased about this perfectly reasonable explanation. Hineni sighs. “I think it’s going to take me three days in total to make though,” he explains. “The blade tonight, then the next two days to make the pole.”

She crosses her arms, thinking about it for a moment, but then nods. It looks like his terms have been accepted.

“I’m gonna take a bath before bed,” says Hineni, setting down his tools to start extinguishing the forge.

Half an hour later, he makes his way out of the forge, shuffling through the large hall towards the door to the bath.

*Dhunk* *Dhunk* *Dhunk*

The door.

Hineni groans. It’s the middle of the night. Do they really have to be this insistent? The man, annoyed, shuffles towards the front door, pulling it open.

“It’s late. Please lea -”

(???) casts [Dream-Whisper] on (Hineni)

Applied Status: [Sleep]

[HP: 39/39]

Hineni falls to the ground. The last thing he sees before everything goes dark is the door opening and a couple people bending down and grabbing him, dragging him towards a carriage that is parked outside. Something smells like frogs.