"Morning!" Gwyn greeted me energetically as we started walking towards the gate, "Where's Lily?"

"She's still asleep, Carey was going to take her out to town later today." I just hope she doesn't cause too much trouble. Pulling a simple sandwich made of Platinum Bear meat out of my inventory I handed it to Gwyn along with a glass of water with Moon Honey in it, of course I made a glass for myself.

"You are amazing at cooking though and I thought it was only this water." Amazing or not the Princesses and their people ate most of the food and ingredients in my inventory, not long after we started eating dinner the fairies joined in as well as the other servants in the palace.

"Did you put something into this? I feel strangely energetic." The food that wasn't eaten up were food that were made using an unrestrained cooking skill and had the effect of granting various buffs. The sandwich I gave Gwyn was one made from Platinum Bear meat and gave a huge boost to Health and Stamina, not that I would tell her that.

"Maybe it's your imagination? There's nothing strange inside of it." Gwyn looked into my eyes for a bit then shrugged and continued eating.

"Hmmm, if you say so." We walked in silence for a bit before Gwyn stopped and turned towards me, the sandwich nowhere in sight, "Have you reconsidered my proposal?" Is she referring to the marriage proposal from last night? She wasn't the only one, a lot of the other girls there and some of the guys tried to arrange marriage but I just thought Gwyn was joking.

"No thank you but it's not because I find anything lacking in you, it's just that I'm not looking for a relationship right now." If a normal person was to receive an offer like that from Gwyn of course it would be stupid to decline, even if she no longer had any rights to the throne, but it's too bothersome for me; plus even if I do get into a relationship with someone my end goal is to get back home at some point if possible.

"Alright, let me know if you ever change your mind."

"Dervus D. Dundy at yer service." A short bearded man that would be globally recognized by gamer's as a dwarf pounded his chest and stated his name.

"Alina Vel Ezcheel, I'm the head enchanter here." A woman with short blond hair tied back in a pony tail with blue eyes likewise stated her name almost disinterestedly, she looks kind of like an elf but her ears weren't long at all. "I'm a half elf." Noticing where my gaze was directed she said that with a slightly aggravating tone, normally half breeds aren't very well received; I guess this world is no different.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Shin." Shaking hands with each of them I introduced my self simply, "I'll be in your care for the next three days."

"Three days? Hey Gwyn let me make you a new sword instead of this kid, I'll make you a true sword." Dervus really likes chest pounding.

"I must agree with him there, I simply do not see how Shin would be able to forge a sword then enchant it in three days time. Ignoring the brute work, enchanting itself takes at least a week to properly do."

"It'll be fine, by the way don't skimp on the materials. Ev-er-y-thing is available to you Shin." While emphasizing on the word 'everything' Gwyn was looking not at me but the other two, is there something special that they weren't supposed to use or was too expensive to use? "Well I'll see you later Shin, I'm looking forward to my new sword!" Handing me the hilt of her old sword she left waving with a large grin on her face.

"Letting you use our facilities and materials as you wish doesn't agree with me but we owe a big debt to the royal family so I'll follow my orders." Dervus led the way into the large building that was the area he was in charge of, the clanging of metal on metal resounded in the background. "Well this is our humble smithy," Hard at work forging anything from tools to art pieces to weaponry and armor were several men of various races and age, there were even two girls mixed in. "We do work to make items that is used in the castle as well as selling various items to help fund the royal family. Most of the items as you can see are made of iron with a few made of steel," He turned to face me, "I'm going to be honest with you, we don't have much in terms of materials but as meager as they are you are free to use them as promised." Walking again Dervus lead me into a large open room where two forges were fired up and ready to go with various smithing tools all around. "You can use this room while you are here."

"Thank you." Nodding he started leaving the room, pausing to give Alina a look before continuing.

"An enchanter shouldn't mess with another's work because it could result in the magic going out of control so there's not much I can offer..." Alina reached into her robes then hesitated, "But this." Bringing her hand out she revealed a glass orb, within floated what appears to be a scale. "It's a dragon scale, not one of those childish dragon pretenders but a mature authentic dragon. It's worth a lot money and has been with the royal family since the war with the other races ended." She openly glared at me with hostility, "Letting you use it as you please does not sit well with me but like Dervus I owe them a great debt, make a sword worthy of this." With that she left the room without waiting for a reply.

"Okay, well first things first I need to melt the sword pieces down." I locked the door and walked up to one of the forges, it's temperature is perfect for making a sword, personalities aside those two were definitely apart of the best that this continent has to offer, their aura's were no joke. Barrier a glowing sphere about a meter in diameter spawned in front of me, next taking out the sword pieces that were in my inventory the blades appeared inside of the orb, glowing a menacing red. Dispelling the unstable magic will take some time, then I'll have to melt the pieces down and incorporate them into the blade of the new sword. Looking down at the heavily enchanted orb beside me I start picturing how the sword is going to look.

Why don't you just use your skill to make a blade? It'll be a lot faster.

"Breaking down a material with that does reduce it to basic components but then it won't be the same..." the pieces would just be converted from one item into another item entirely, "It's also a matter of sentimentality and sincerity." Rather than making a new sword I want the sword to be as if it transformed and got stronger, defying death and all obstacles. There's also the fact that items made with the skill are all uniform but items made by hand can vary, being either stronger or weaker depending on the circumstances.

You sure that's all? There's a smile creeping up your face.

Is there? I tried calming down to remove the smile but it's hard to, I finally have free reign on crafting something without a need for any restraint or Fafnoth breathing down my back.

"So you met Shin half a year ago when you were blown away from home by that storm." Carey was walking down the street with Lily floating nearby. "I'm surprised that you survived."

"It's because Shin and Fafnoth helped me, oh that looks tasty!" During the ten or so minutes that Carey has been with Lily, she was truly pitying Shin who had to put up with Lily everyday. Lily just would not stay still and Carey's purse has been getting lighter, how much can she eat?!?

"So, is Shin a martial artist now?" Yesterday after the meeting Carey had talked to Gwyn asking about Shin's fighting capabilities, the result was quite a shock. Provided that back then he was only just starting on magic but he had an absurd amount of potential.

"I'm not allowed to say anything, otherwise I won't get food again!" Stating so Lily proceeded to stuff her face with the various type of food that Carey just bought from the multitude of stalls around the street they were walking in.

Carey pulled out a little blue ball, "I have some candy I'm willing to trade for the information" She had asked Shin for some last night and saved al- the majority of it for this exchange with Lily.

"Yay Candy!" Grabbing the blue ball from Carey's hand Lily stuffed it into her mouth then moaned in satisfaction.

"And about my question?" Lily shook her head furiously until Carey offered another two pieces of candy.

"He's good with both magic and fighting with his hands." So a monk maybe? Carey didn't know too much about them but monks use magic to enhance their bodies when fighting, or maybe a magic knight. But Lily had specifically said hands so that would be unlikely unless Lily was deceiving her. Carey looked at Lily who floated near another stall ordering a bunch of food... There's no way that fairy can even think of being deceitful.

"Wait! Lily, I'm running out of money!" About thirty minutes had passed since they started and Carey's money was already more than half gone.

"Hmm? You mean these things?" Lily reached into a small blue bag that was hanging off of her waist and pulled out a gold coin. "Shin said these were my allowance... don't know what that means though." Lily continued munching on the chicken on a stick that she just got from the vendor as Carey stared at her in disbelief.

"A gold coin for an allowance?!?" Certainly Shin wouldn't be poor but isn't a gold coin too much?

"Errr..." Lily looked into the bag and started counting, "One... Two... Three... Four... There's ten gold coins in here." So eleven including the one she took out, that's a small fortune and Shin gave that to Lily?!?!? It's all going to disappear for food before the day's done at the rate she was going.

"You... need to learn some money sense. You can't buy anymore food for the day, and you only have that one outfit don't you?" Dragging a wailing Lily towards an apparel store Carey started lecturing Lily on things she should buy and how to spend her money, collecting information completely forgotten.

"The nobles probably won't touch most of the capital if we give the city up and just defend from the second wall." Shea, Caroline, Gwyn, Carey, and Tryn were in Shea's room standing around the table that now had a map laid out on it.

"They'll most likely come from the south," A woman with short black hair in light leather armor spoke out, "We have minimal guards there since it's their private residences and its sectioned off from the rest of the city with a direct path to the castle."

"If they have anyone with even a bit of tactical knowledge they wouldn't bet solely on that." Gwyn was looking on the map, "Because the temples are situated in the north they wouldn't send anyone from there, even if some of the members of the temples revolt." The last part was said cautiously with Gwyn glancing over at Carey. "The south is a death trap, it has a direct and connection with us here but it's also completely closed in. There's also the mages council and the other nobles so they would be slowed down considerably giving us ample time to prepare. If I were them I would send in various small squads to try and take the East and West sides where we would have less men posted, if they do manage to do that then our defenders would be boxed in and cut off from the rest of our forces."

"We don't have enough man power to guard the entire stretch of the wall, especially after we start fighting." A lanky man dressed in luxurious clothing, "If we just hold the inner walls we can last until our other forces regroup and come relieve us of the siege." An obvious point that the others present had thus far refused to consider, holding the inner walls especially in a siege, aside from the lack of space for the animals also carries the risk of damage to the palace that the hero built.

"The palace itself is an artifact from the past letting it get damaged is just..." Even Caroline who often vouches for the most logical and appropriate choice voiced out her discontent about that plan.

"Then I'll carry that burden!" With that exclamation the doors were swung open and the king walked in, despite only being in his forties he had a folds of wrinkles and white hair. "We will hold at the inner walls that is an order."

"Bu-But father even if we win, the blame for the damage on the palace would likely fall upon you." Shea getting up in surprise at his appearance tried to convince him otherwise, the others aside from Gwyn were bowing deeply.

"Enough. My name is not more important than this," Waving one of the people that was standing behind him forward the king spoke out clearly, "Hesn, you and the palace guards are to join in the defense of the walls, I'll be fine by myself."

"That's really risky father." Gwyn who had remained quiet up till now said so simply.

"If I should fall then so be it, there are the two of you still here is there not?" The king took his time looking into each of his daughter's eyes, lingering longest on Gwyn's. "Don't think of something foolish like protecting this old man, I'm sure that together you two will be able to do much more for the people that I have."

*Bang

The door suddenly flew open with the eight guards, four of them being the king's personal guards, were launched backwards into the room. Reaching for their various weapons an even tenser atmosphere than before surrounded the group as they waited for the assailant to show themselves.

"Damn it Lily what did you even do!"

"But you said you would make me some food after you're finished! I haven't eaten much the past three days!!!" The ones that appeared were not an attacker with malicious intent but an unexpected duo.

"Ah, right. Putting Lily aside for now, I'm sorry to interrupt your death flag triggering event but I finished Gwyn's weapon."

"Of course we're here to see it." Dervus and Alina walked in together giving the downed guards a glance before continuing towards the table. Dervus had a scowl on his face and was constantly glaring at Shin while Alina was just looking disapprovingly at him. Walking right up to Gwyn, bypassing the king and his guards earning him more glares, he reached into the air and pulled out a great sword almost entirely identical to her previous one.

"WAIT!!! It took you three whole days of locking yourself in my forge to make that!?!?!?" Dervus was so red it almost seemed like steam would blow out of his ears.

"What happened to the dragon scale?" Alina's gaze was cold and her voice flat, completely different from Dervus who was like an unstable anger bomb.

"Hmm? Of course this isn't just a simple sword, this is a mythological grade sword." At that all the mouths dropped to the ground, "I apologize but I'm unable to make Divine weapons right no-"

"Wait! Wait! Wait! WHAT!?!?" Several people yelled out at once but the loudest one was Dervus, "You telling me this exceedingly NORMAL steel great sword is bloody Mythological grade?!?! Who the hell are you trying to fool!?!?!"

"I'm not lying though? Here Gwyn pick it up." Shin held the sword out to Gwyn.

"It feel exactly the same... wait the weight is slightly different?" After taking a few practice swings Gwyn stated so.

"Now try pouring mana into it."

"Alright?" As Gwyn started using magic a red aura appeared around her and started expanding out as it usually did, "I don't see what's differen-!?!" All of a sudden all of the mana that Gwyn was releasing got sucked into the sword, unlike before when she was dueling Shin the mana didn't collect around the outside of the sword but was instead sucked in to the blade. "Wh..at...wa..s that?" Out of breath Gwyn asked while looking at Shin, physically she was almost entirely drained.

"Hmm... Maybe that wasn't enough mana?" Taking a bottle of water that was releasing a sweet smell he passed it to Gwyn, "Here drink some while continuing to pour mana into the sword.

*Sniff sniff sniff, "That smell.. ish zhat huneyz?" Lily's word started slurring as an endless amount of drool started flowing out of her mouth. Not only her though, everyone else was staring at Gwyn or rather the bottle jealously as Gwyn started chugging it down.

An immediate effect was visible as Gwyn was no longer slouching and the previously thinning aura around her came alive again and almost doubled in size from before. After she finished most of the bottle off the blade finally started to react and glowed a deep crimson colour causing Gwyn to temporarily stop drinking.

Maybe... I overdid it... The plain great sword that was in Gwyn's had transformed into the size of cloud's sword. A hilt and blade made out of black metal that seemed to suck light in that had elegant crimson flames across the entire thing releasing a heat that even I could feel despite my heat resistance. In the middle of the cross guard was a red gem like thing in the shape of an oni's face that emitted an intimidating aura, meanwhile Gwyn's mana was no longer leaking and was actually not very visible at all although I could see it flowing from her hand directly into the sword.

"How did you even make this?" Gwyn was looking in wonder at the sword she was holding.

"Err well it technically was a normal sword until you put mana into it, it's also soul bound to you now so no one else can use it aside from you and me." Well technically that's not true soul-binding but close enough, but seriously that was unexpected. I thought it would just grow bigger and shoot out flames or something but this is quite elaborate... maybe I should use soul metal more moderately in the future. "Oh right I also made you some armor."

"Eh?" Everyone was looking at me with wide eyes, why? I mean sure mythological is rare and all but it exists, in DDO only one person managed to obtain one though and died immediately after. The Dragon Heart was a mythological item that called dragons... literally. Taking the armor out of my inventory I passed it to her, it was a form fitting black leather outfit complete with something close to combat boots and gloves. Of course the stitching was done with soul metal threads and the rubber was also done with soul metal... I haven't figured out how to make rubber yet.

"Try it on."

"Wait what are you asking her to do!?!?" Carey finally said something which caused everyone to snap out of the shocked trance they were in.

"Hmm? Oh I just meant to channel your mana into it, there's an instant change magic attached to it." Conveniences are of course required, transformation sequence and chants omitted. The instant Gwyn touched the armor it disappeared from my hands and materialized over her in a burst of flame, there was no magically naked but not naked transition scene. Of course like with the sword, flames were all over the armor and the soul metal pieces were in a crimson colour although the stitching was done so it wasn't visible. Over her face was a red and black oni mask which suited her wild hair well... actually where did the mask even come from?

I suggest a tactical retreat.

I was actually considering that... Was mythological even rare in this world? "Well now that I'm done with that," They all looked to me in unison, actually Gwyn is really scary right now. "I'll be taking me leave, I need to cook for Lily as well as catch up on three days of sleep. Bye!" Before they could reply I ran out the door with Lily on my shoulder... I should not reveal what was used as construction materials... I definitely overdid it, way overdid it!

"Ah, there's the scale." Alina was the first to break the silence after Shin left, looking where she pointed they saw that on the belt buckle was the diamond shaped red scale. Nobody really paid any attention to the scale at this point however, the scale being vastly over shadowed by the information just presented by Shin.

"So... what can you do now?" Carey was looking a bit to the side of Gwyn's face. "And err can you take that mask off? It's a little... Unsettling."

"... How... do I do that?" Gwyn put a hand on the mask and tugged on it, but the mask stayed there stubbornly. She tried dropping the sword, taking off the gloves and boots, nothing worked. "Umm... am I stuck like this?"

"What if you tried using some mana?" Shea spoke up, magical items often required mana to work in any way shape or form. As Gwyn focused the mask disappeared as did the gloves and boots, as the rest of her clothes started to disappear in flames the female members quickly shoved the males out the door before anything was revealed.

"Uhh... maybe we should ask Shin..." The armor completely disappeared, manifesting itself into a black metal bracelet with graceful red lines on it depicting flames; the sword however remains unchanged. "I rather not have my clothes disappear every time I put the armor on.

"I don't even know what to say anymore about the ridiculous things he's done already." Carey was holding her head, "Are all chosen's of the reaper's like this."

"Wait what was that? I didn't hear the last bit." Caroline looked at Carey inquisitively.

"Nothing, ah right Gwyn... if you don't mind can I have the last bit of that drink?"

"Wai- I was aiming for that!" Shea protested as Gwyn drank the last of the liquid.

"Seems like they will be fine," The king was leisurely walking down the hall with his guards.

"I don't think we can trust him." Franz the leader of the palace guards was walking beside him.

"Maybe not entirely but at least he's not hostile towards us; as long as he isn't there's always room to maneuver." The king looked out the window, "Maybe it's time for Gwyn and Shea to consider getting married." The king turned back to Franz as they continued walking with a questioning look on his face, "By the way, what is a death flag triggering event?"

*Note: The part I kept rewriting was the beginning part, I first wrote about the entire night, then decided not to, redid it, then removed it again so the result was... well what it is now. As for item grades (not sure if I defined it before, couldn't find it when I went back to look for it in the other chapters but could've just missed it.) It goes like this (this being the permanent definition):

Common

Common being your run of the mill item, Uncommon is just basically something a (normal)Master Craftsman would be able to make so an item with exceptional quality, Magical being an echanted item. Rare is usually an item with magic mixed in with it. (Enchanting adds magic on top while mixing magic in during the manufacturing progress results in a rare item, of course the craftsmanship has to be top class), Legendary is an item worthy of being immortalized in legends (Defining legends as real stories, albeit possibly skewed by various things over the years of story telling), Mythological is an item that is only found in myths (So basically something that is considered so strong its non-existent), and Divine I identified before as an item made by gods for gods (something that transcends mortal capabilities)

Also not entirely related in a way (will put this in status too), I'm going to be starting a different story because that one has been bugging me constantly, so while it probably won't affect the chapter that's released around the weekend it will most likely end up being chapter for that during the week and chapter for this over weekend.