“Haaa… Haaa… Haaa…”

There I was… Stretched out on the floor. After 3 weeks of full blacksmithing course, I was dead tired. ‘But Kenji-san has the Exhaustion Immunity skill, no?’

Yes, I do have that skill. But it only help me with Physical tiredness, not Mental tiredness. So, Blacksmith was hammered on my head, quite literally sometimes, all these 3 weeks. It was nice in the beginning, with the things the dwarf thought me, not gonna lie. But after learning the basics?

After every mistake I made, either a punch on my face, or on my stomach would be launched.

The basics, were, well, basically temperature, when the material isn’t good to forge, when the material need to be purified more, for what to use the materials, when to stop and put back on the fire, and the amount of strength to put on the hammer.

When that was finished, it came other techniques. Such as quenching, tempering, making alloys, and a lot of things, that if I started listing would take a whole lot of time to tell. Search on the internet, it might be better than me explaining.

Oh, and when I mentioned about melting an ore… I received a hammer on my back, sending me to the wall. I broke some bones, but healed them quickly. The dwarf got super pissed about molding. It is useful to make some weapons, such as hammers, but swords, spear tips, axes and sharp edged weapons? That’s a no.

Small weapons, such as throwing blades, kunais, shurikens, and such? No problem. But anything other than that? A hammer to my back.

With the materials I had in hand, the dwarf was pleased. Also, his name was Bassal Mythrilriver. The first name was his own, but the second, was a clan specialized material maker, mixed with where they usually lived.

In his case, he knew very well to deal with Mythril, and lived close to a river. In fact, the Mythril was the best, and the fastest material for him to make something. With an Ingot of Mythril, in a matter of 1 day, he made a fine sword.

Also, since the materials were mine, the old man divided the payment. The bastard tried to swindle me, by putting 70% for him and the shop, and the remaining to me. We had a giant discussion with prices, and the dwarf settled that to us.

“HIS MATERIALS ARE FIRST RATE! AND BELONG TA HIM! AIN’T NO WAY IN HELL HE’S GETTING LESS THAN 60% OF PROFITS! DO YA WANT TA RECEIVE A HAMMER ON YA?! HUH?!”

When it came to anything related to Blacksmith, the dwarf would lose his cool, and sometimes, quite frequently actually, he would hammer the old man’s back. In the end, the profits were divided in 50-50. The old man was confused, but I finished saying that it was the best outcome.

In doubt? Divide by 2. That’s one thing I learned in the orphanage… Lots of children were very, how do I say it? Possessive with things. So, we always divided things 50-50. Everyone would win, no loser at all.

Anyway, out of the 3 weeks learning, while having small pauses to eat, and after that, I couldn’t even rest a few minutes. Finished eating? BACK TO WORK! WHO EXACTLY IS THE SLAVE?!

Okay, better stop ranting about this. 2 out of the 3 weeks was for me to ‘Learn’ Blacksmith. The third week? I made the ‘Heroes’ weapons. Let’s get back on clock a little bit.

“Okay… Urgh! Let me make this thing.”

“Ya better not make a blunder, ya hear me?! Or else a hammer will fly on ya!”

“Geez, no pressure at all…”

I got the materials for the idiots.

The Sword with all elements usage, and Holy Magic? That was hell to make. In comparison, the Scythe and Staff for Hayashi were a breeze.

The Sword would be made out of 3 metals, and 2 Monster parts. Lucky me! I had the 2 monster parts! Okay, the metals, were the Krelium ore(Lightning Conductivity), Mythril(for the 4-Element Magic), and a small chunk of Adamantite Alloy(the one I made, which was compatible with Ice Magic!).

As for the monster parts? Well, it was the Volatilion’s bones, which, thankfully! I was able to pull out of the Digi-Storage without destroying the city, and for Holy Magic? Would you believe that I was able to use a Bloody Core?

Well, not the Bloody Core, but it’s purified Version. In the Smithy, there was Holy Water, and for curiosity’s sake, I tossed some on the Bloody Core. Two things happened, though. First, the Tainted quality of the core was gone. Secondly? Heh. The core received a function. Inhibition.

I had two of them with me. And! With my paranoia, I used the second core to make Takahashi’s Scythe. That’s for later though. Let’s focus on the sword for now.

So, with the 3 ores, and the 2 monster parts, I fused them. Y’see, to fuse something like these 5 different materials, it is needed a special material. In this case, it was monster blood. Think of the monster’s blood as a catalyst for alchemy.

Which monster’s blood? Well, one that has affinity to fire, or magma. And once again, I had the two… Both the Volatilion, and the Krakagator. I still had some of the blood of them.

The Volatilion was, as you might expect, too unstable to take out. And the Dwarf got worried it would destroy the workshop, so I let it aside. As for the Krakagator, I had not much of it, but the Smithy had some.

You know, while making a Katana, the traditional way, the tamahagane steel is stacked, like block on top of each other, then it’s wrapped in paper, and before going to the forge, is covered by a light layer of clay, and ash. That, is to prevent oxidation, but I used that as a base.

I stacked the materials one through another, wrapped in paper, and a light layer of the blood. Taking to the forge… I jumped in surprise. Why? Let’s just say that the fire literally devoured the metal. The dwarf laughed, and he kept watching all the procedure.

The metals wouldn’t join together, no matter how much I hoped for. That’s where the blood came in. The blood entered through the metal, and made it more easy for the metals to meld with one another, as well as with the monster parts.

After that procedure, was hammer time. Since this was the hardest to make, it took a lot of time. The Dwarf knew it would take some time, and helped me in some parts. The third week was the one where I took more hammers to my body than before.

The sword, in the end, had a golden glint to it. From a dark gray, it become gold, like, well, Orichalcum. I was curious as to why not use Orichalcum, but the Dwarf gave me the reason.

“Ta meld Orichalcum with other ores, ya literally need to make da Orichalcum with the ores.”

Apparently, High purity Orichalcum, could only be ‘made’. How? By taking pure gold to the top of a Volcano, with a mirror that can absorb solar light, and transfer to the gold. Nope, I don’t know how this works, and the Dwarf said it was a waste of time to make like that, hence why no one ever tried to meld Orichalcum with other ores.

Anyway, just as we finished, the Dwarf took the sword to analyze it. Thankfully, I received a pat on the back instead of a hammer.

“Good! This is something! Now, let’sa finish the others.”

“Yay… More work… Urgh~”

Next, were the Gauntlets. Since I already made one, it was the fastest. Also, the gauntlets were forged by the Dwarf, using not Hihi’irokane, but Wufril ore. Wufril ore, is better than Hihi’irokane, being more durable, and it can be forged, which Hihi’irokane cannot.

The bow was a bit problematic. Why? The metal to build it. Usually, most bows are made with wood, and enchanted to be durable. But Yamada wanted her bow to be made out of metal. And worse, she wanted the bow to be a compound one! The dwarf didn’t understand what a Compound bow was, so I drew one, and showed him the perks and all of that. He got surprised, and started thinking on the materials to make one.

Finishing with the thinking, in the end, we used Electrum. Which is an alloy made out of Gold and Silver. It has a pale yellow tinge to it, but it was durable. Also, instead of normal string, I bought some Taracs spider’s Web, and boy! How strong the bow got.

Now, for Suzuki’s Katana? I did the traditional way. The dwarf helped as well. The other parts, such as scabbard, hilt, guard, we left the old man to take care of that. In fact, he took care of that part. We would only do the metal working, while he dealt with the rest.

Hiroto-san weapon was a problem as well. Not as much as Aoki’s sword, but a problem nonetheless. We used Mythril to make it more easy to channel mana, but to make it able to use Time Magic? That took time. In the end, we couldn’t find a monster with Time Magic Affinity. And I ended up enchanting it… With the skills I had with me.

Restoration was the main skill of this. Y’see, I could restore things back in shape, and heal people. But with Enchantment, that can be stretched to more… dangerous areas. Such as, what if I don’t restore, but instead, I wither it? I can do. Or, if I can destroy things? I can. Only with enchantment though.

And it was finished. The staff had a gray tinge to it, with a clear crystal on the top. It was a crystal that could install a predetermined spell beforehand. Quite useful.

The Death Magic compatible staff. This was easy peasy. And also, I made it with a hand with sharp claws, and in the middle, a Lich Core. Yes, a Lich Core. It was sold to the Witch, and I bought it from her the moment it showed up.

Now. For Takahashi’s scythe. This one was easy. But I gave a small… ‘Perk’ to it. Y’see, Takahashi hates me. Like, a lot. Why? If I could give a reason, it would be because of Naomi-san.

Well, Naomi-san likes me. That’s nice and all, but… How do I say it? I can’t see myself in a relationship with her. She’s beautiful with her long lustrous black hair and all, also her body which IS quite nice. I don’t know how to call a women’s body…

She likes me, I know, but I don’t see me reciprocating the feeling… Anyway! Takahashi’s scythe had a gimmick. Remember the Bloody Core pure version? The Inhibition function? I added that to his scythe. And did my best to hid that. Call me paranoid or anything else, but I bet he wants to kill me.

In the end, the Scythe had the Darkness affinity, and the inhibition thing. I would use it on the future.

“Finished~…”

After that, I ate, and started making a modification on a certain Outfit, AND making Lucy’s weapon and armor.

With a project in mind already, I started making the weapon for Lucy.

It would be both a mace, and a flail. How? Well, let’s get started. First of all, the mace would be cylindrical, or better, rectangular, by having four sides, with 7 small cubes, and in the middle of the cubes, small spikes.

I made the mace with both the Adamantite Alloy from before, AND the Adaptive Solution. The Adaptive Solution, was the special thing about it. When Mana is poured on it, the small spikes would extend themselves, becoming even more thin, and long to pierce the target.

The handle would stay between the mace/flail head, and a 0 shaped part. The oval shape, would house the chains, in a circle. The oval shape had around 30 centimeters long, and could be used to defend. Pressing a button on the handle, the base of the mace would disconnect, and the flail would be the ‘activated’ weapon at that time. [modern_footnote]I tried to draw her weapon, but couldn't get it right. NONETHELESS! Here's the "Inspiration"

Warframe: Buzdovan - Tenno Flail Weapon Design by Liger-Inuzuka on DeviantArt[/modern_footnote]

With the Adaptive Solution, I also discovered a new function. Just like my MPD, which now is my left eye, it could evolve with certain materials. In this case, Lucy’s weapon needed a few… REAAALLY expensive things. Such as a Dragon’s Core.

Y’see, a Dragon’s Core and the Monster Core, are 2 different things. A Dragon’s Core, is like the normal Core, being Unique to the Species. Like the Drake’s Core, it has… few uses. You either sell it for the higher bid, or! You can make a draconian potion.

Draconian Potion, is basically a potion, that will allow the one who drink it, to tap into the Draconian Energy. Simply put, the Draconian Energy is like a Powered Up mana. Nothing much. Just a more powerful fuel.

Anyway! That’s the material to use to evolve the Mace/Flail.

“A name. How should I name it?” Few words flowed through my mind. “This is a hard one. How about… Vernichter…” It meant Annihilator by the by.

It shone with a purple light, but I just settled on the table and got on to work on Lucy’s Armor.

The armor was of a simple design. Simple Design? Yes. Simple Materials? Of course not.

Anyway, the armor, was more of leather, than metal. It had a 2 piece body suit, as in, top and bottom side. The body suit could be in the way for a few things. The material of the body suit, would be leather outside, but the inner part of it, was of a comfy material: cotton. It was comfy, but, also wouldn’t make her sweat as hell while using it. Enchanting for the win.

The 2 piece body suit, had the outer side, made out of the Flying Chimera’s hide. It was resistant, but also had a nice function: [Wind Nullification]. The wind wouldn’t hinder the movement of the wearer.

After that, I worked on a plate mail. The front part, would protect Lucy’s chest and her abdomen. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I don’t know, her shoulder blades would be defenseless. After all, if the area wasn’t vacant, she wouldn’t be able to deploy her wings.

The plate, would be made out of, yes, I’m overkill, from Mondálium Scales, that previously belonged to the Terrae Drake. The Plate, had a scaled appearance on the front, but at the back which covered the area below the shoulder blades, was smooth. Resistant nonetheless.

I also made metal protection to her shoulders, and neck, preventing her from being targeted on those areas. With that, I finished with 2 arm plates, ranging from her wrists, to her elbow. Also leather gloves, to not let the metal touch her skin.

“Since this makes her a full Valkyrie, in a sense, let’s call it: Valkyrie’s Embrace.”

With a golden light, the entire outfit shone. In the end, the color that was kept… Was of a Black Body Suit below, and a Dark-Gray plate all around.

“I’m impressed myself.”

With that out of the way, I would work on MY Outfit now.

Speaking quite truthfully, the Odyssey Outfit was… Eye-Catching. Like, A LOT.

The Overcoat, had a black outer color, with the borders in gold. The inside of it, was a gold red too, just to complete the ‘I’m a target’ set. There was a black Long Sleeved T-shirt, and a Mythril plate protecting the chest area.

The pants and boots were also black. The pants had a Red Stripe coming upwards from the legs. As for the boots, they had two red plates on the calf, reaching the height of my knees.

There were also gloves, AND Gauntlets. Before, I thought the gloves leather was ‘Normal’. How I was an idiot. The ‘Normal’ leather, was actually a Dragon’s Skin! Unfortunately, it was from a Young Dragon, so it didn’t had THAT much power to it. It was sufficient enough though.

Now, the Gauntlets were a nice thing. The left Gauntlet, had a Dark Red metal, while the right Gauntlet was Gray-ish metal. In short, the Dark Red metal was Wufril ore, and the Gray-ish metal was Krelium ore.

Wufril, has a high Fire Conductivity, or better, Fire Affinity, while the Krelium ore has a Lightning Affinity. When I put them on… Nothing happened. Using the MPD, now my left eye, showed me that I needed both the elemental magics, or anything related to those two.

Thankfully, I had affinity to those two, and the price was… rather cheap. Except Lightning can’t be acquired by SP. I mean, it can be acquired, but you’ll end up acquiring Wind and Fire Magic together, and also needing to put them in Tier M.

“Meh. Whatever.”

But wait! There’s a surprise!

◙ SKILLS FIRE MAGIC, WIND MAGIC, AND LIGHTNING MAGIC CANNOT BE ACQUIRED! SKILLS FIRE MANIPULATION, WIND MANIPULATION, AND LIGHTNING MANIPULATION, HAVE BEEN ACQUIRED INSTEAD! FIRE AND WIND MANIPULATION ARE NOW TIER M! FIRE AND WIND MANIPULATION HAVE EVOLVED TO FIRE AND WIND MASTERY! ◙

“Uuuuhh… What? You know what? Whatever. I’m analyzing it later.”

After hearing all of that, I just ignored and kept working on the outfit.

First of all, I used some magical dye to change the colors. The main materials of the outfit, which LOOKED like clothes, but were made of 3 metals actually. Yes, the outfit, was made with Metal Wires. Just that they were covered with cotton to LOOK like normal clothes.

The materials were Adamantite, Reglite, and Mythril. The Adamantite, was the main protection of the outfit. Reglite, gave the second main effect of the Outfit, which was [Cloaking]. And the Mythril, was the Main Function of the Outfit, which was to create a thin barrier/veil around the wearer.

With that, I changed a few things. First of all, the Adamantite. I infused a bit of carbon(charcoal, basically), and transformed the Adamantite, to the Alloy I made from before. I also added the Adaptive Solution, making possible to evolve. Alas, the EVOLVE part, didn’t worked. But the material was added nonetheless.

The Mythril was part of the thin barrier around the wearer, but it was too faulty. It absorbed too much mana to create, AND concentrate the mana around of it. This is where the Adaptive Solution comes in. Not only the solution was part of the outfit, but it also changed the circuit to make it better. Now, the amount of mana needed was about 1.5% to keep the barrier active.

“From more than 50% to 1.5%? This thing is really good.”

You might ask: Where the hell you got more of the Symbiotic Slime? Answer: The other monsters that fought the girls from before. They had more of the slime, about more than 5 Liters of it. The best part about this, was that I didn’t need a lot of the slime to make a lot of the Adaptive Solution.

Now, from the red, black, and gold colors, it is now Blue, Black, and White.

The Overcoat, still had the outer side with black, but the borders were white. The inner side, was now a dark blue. It looked like it was fading away, but I found it cool. The Long Sleeved T-Shirt, was Dark-Blue as well. You have noticed I quite like the blue color by now, huh?

The pants still were black, but the stripe was white, and the boots were black as well, but with the Dark-Blue plates instead of red. The Gauntlets as well! They were completely black now.

Speaking of the plate on the chest, I also extended the plate, reaching my neck. I used the adaptive solution with the Mytril plate, and made the metal more… flexible. Whenever I moved my neck, the metal would move like my own neck. And, to top it all off, I made the plate on the neck extend to my chin, and created somekind of mask, protecting my mouth and nose. Whenever I activated, I discovered that my status, specifically my AGI and DEX got up a bit.

“Let’s call this the Agility Mode!”

I also remade the blades, and installed on the new gauntlets. Different from before, the blades were separated in 2, and would come from the sides, forming a full, triangular blade. Before, the blade would simply come out from a compact space. Now, they would be on the sides, and when activated, they would move, and connect on the top.

Another thing I ended up finding out, was about the New [Technomagic] Level. I couldn’t use the sub-skills. Specifically, the {Techno-Shapeshifting} sub-skill. This was the message I received when I tried to activate.

► Sub-Skill Techno-Shapeshifting ◄

Impossbile to activate.

It can only be used when the user has Bionic parts on the body.

I didn’t had the parts, but! I could use the {Techno-Shapeshifting} with Tech equipment. And my Left eye is one of them. Alas, it was really useless right now. Also, I didn’t had any idea of what to make to use the sub-skill. Also… replacing my limbs and other parts of my body with technology? Thanks, no Thanks!

“Finished~”

After going through all that, we can go back to me stretched on the ground, panting a lot.

The Dwarf was laughing quite heartily. The old man face slapped, and was sighing over and over. After waiting for me to get my air back, the idiots, the witch, and the girls appeared. I was still stretched on the ground though.

“Kenji-sama!”

“I’m fine… Kinda… Aaah~”

The idiots were with a frown, the girls were worried, and the Witch walked to the old man. They chatted for awhile, and I got up finally. I cracked my body, and took out the idiots weapons. They all looked baffled.

“Now… Names… What do I even call these things?”

“A name?”

“Yeah, egg head. These things aren’t pathetic artifacts. They’re Relifacts.”

The Dwarf laughed, the old man face slapped, and the Witch was agape.

“AGAIN?!”

“What?”

“Yeah! Whatcha mean what? Those are things me and the lad worked on! If it wasn’t better than those stupid artifacts, than they wouldn’t be enough!”

The idiots were looking confused, and impressed. Except Takahashi, he had a face of anger. That Skill really affects his head. Even for these stupid things.

“Anyway… Let’s see… For Aoki’s sword…”

Aoki’s sword was simply a long sword. Since the color of it was gold…

“How about… Lux Sanctus?” It shone with a gold light, and settled down. “Wow~ It’s a bit better. Now requires less mana to use spells. Nice! A sword and Staff in one!”

I tossed to Aoki, and grabbed the Gauntlets.

“Crimson Taurus.”

The gauntlets shone a crimson light, and I tossed them to Nakamura. He didn’t grabbed in time, letting them fall. Shrugging I grabbed the scythe. The scythe had a curved shaft, with some details in purple, and the blade had a purple edge, and black back.

“Messor Vitae.”

Purplish light appeared, and I tossed to Takahashi. He grabbed quite well, and when the light was gone, the back of the scythe’s blade had purple letters on it. Yep! Can’t read that. Grabbing now the blade for Suzuki, she gulped audibly, and I looked through the blade.

“Hmmm… Albus Lotus.”

With a white and a flower pattern appearing, Suzuki eyes almost bulged out of her sockets. The name means simply as White Lotus, but the blade changed a lot. A pattern of thorns and vines appeared on the back of the blade. Giving the blade to her, she immediately started using it. Probably to have a feel of it.

The bow for Yamada, was named as Tempestas. Hiroto-san staff, was named as Aurora Temporis. The staff for Hayashi, was named as Mortis Noctem.

All in all, the names of the Relifacts, were:

• Lux Sanctus = Holy Light

• Messor Vitae = Life Harvester

• Albus Lotus = White Lotus

• Tempestas = Tempest

• Aurora Temporis = Dawn of Time

• Mortis Noctem = Death Night

And that’s it! What? Nakamura weapon’s name is lame? Whatever.

“Anyway, finished. Now let me rest.”

Sitting on a chair I held myself not to sleep. Fortunately(or Unfortunately) we all heard the same voice from when the Blood Moon appeared.

◙ THE BLOOD MOON IS #***#***#*###** ◙

The voice started talking, but then, static started to echo around. After a few seconds of that shocking noise on our ears, the phrase continued… Only to surprise everyone.

◙ THE BLOOD HAS EXTENDED! UNTIL THE PURE MANA SOURCE IS SACRIFICED! ◙

“THAT’S SHOCKING SPECIFIC!”

I shouted on the top of my lungs. This isn’t some kind of coincidence. There’s someone holding the Blood Moon in place.

Not only that, but also what, or better, who appeared on the shop’s door, made the situation escalate quite fast. It was a knight. He was panting a lot, and looked like in despair.

“Heroes! Please! We… aaaah~… Need help! Monsters! Demons! Undead! They’re about to invade the city! It’s worse than before!”

“Worse?” I asked curiously.

“Of course you wouldn’t know.” The witch sighed in exasperation. “After a week of you here, the capital was attacked by strong monsters, even more than before. But now…”

“It’s far worse. Got it. Fan -blasting- tastic! I can’t have a rest for awhile.”

Sighing heavily, I walked out of the shop. ‘Will you help the city?’ Hell no! I would go first to those Magic Guns shop. I needed to give Satz’s her Husband.