CHAPTER 118(Blacksmith & Mystery)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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CHAPTER START---

Finding Welf's apartment at the far end of the hallway where all the high smiths who resided in Babel lived, Yang quickly knocked on the door before he let himself in.

"Yo!" he called out, coming to an immediate stop as he saw the small and cramped apartment, filled with boxes of all kinds.

The only open space was a small spot in the middle of the room where Welf sat on the floor pouring over what looked to be sketches, a small book open in his hands as he flips through it.

Even his bed was covered in wooden crates and small boxes.

Opposite the blacksmith was Thalie, wearing a full set of green light armor with a helmet in her lap that would cover her entire face.

"Yeah take a seat," Welf says, patting the floor beside him.

"So what's up?" Yang asks, walking over and sitting atop one of the nearby crates, "and what's all this stuff?"

"Mr. High smith over here has a problem with his fans so he had to move everything into here," Thalie chuckles lightly as she nods toward Welf.

"They're being a pain in my ass, can't use my old forge because they keep banging on the door to make custom orders, I wasn't exactly the most respected smith so I got a shitty location when I moved to Babel..." he admits.

"So less security, then just rent a better spot, what's the problem?" Yang asks.

"There aren't any, Tsubaki checked this morning and it's all full, and Hephaestus can't just kick someone out, it'd send a bad message and all that crap..." Thalie explains.

"So what, you gonna find somewhere outside Babel?"

"Ideally, none of the places I'd be able to rent are big enough anyway, check this," Welf says as he reaches to his side and gently tosses what looks like a shortsword to Yang.

Looking at the pure black blade in his hand, he could see small angular grooves carved into it, he raised a brow to Welf, asking for more information.

"It's the first draft I made with the technique for your weapon, pass any two elements into it," he says.

Flowing fire and wind into the blade, it immediately shatters in his hand and falls to the floor in a pile of shards, "uh...was that supposed to happen?" he asks Welf.

"Yeah that's what I expected, it's impossible to make something that can handle multiple elements at once with my current skill levels. Blacksmith and Metalwork are good enough when boosted by my Crozzo Blood but my Mystery skill is too new, I only got it when I made my sword so I need some help getting the magic routes right for your weapon," Welf says.

"But his gauntlets work so what's the problem?" Thalie asks.

"They work because they aren't made to last, every time we have a chance I have to repair them because his magic literally makes them fall apart. Now that he's level 6...they've got a limited time before he just makes them fall apart from the inside like that sword, not to mention I didn't have enough material to make anything that can even approach Durandal, but now I do..." he gestures to the dozen crates in the room.

"Wait," Yang takes a look at just how many crates are in the room, "all of this for one weapon?"

"Basically, Durandal needs a super high amount of material before I can smelt it to get the best bits, add that with the fact that more elements means more magic routes which means a larger weapon, and you've got six elements for me to deal with, it won't be able to use projectiles like Mosoka because that's more of a bloodline thing, but in theory, you can channel your elements into it to do elemental damage and make the edge that much sharper, sharper than any base magic would make it, no offense Thalie," he gives her a small smile.

"Hmm," Yang thinks over what he just heard before a thought occurs to him," are you still making the switch-axe? Sounds like a greatsword would be better right?"

"That's the funny part actually," Welf passes one of the papers on the floor to Yang, looking at it he sees different coloured lines matching his magic constantly intersecting each other with a large X across the entire diagram. "The magic routes, or veins or whatever you wanna call em can't stay connected without active magic or they'll just stop working, so a shifting weapon like you wanted is the best fit... really weird how it worked out like that," Welf says.

"Yeah, that's a really fucking creepy coincidence, anything we should know?" Thalie asks Yang.

"I'm just as surprised as you two... so that means we have like three things to do, Welf needs a forge---"

"A big one so I can actually smelt larger weapons, if the things you told us about are down there then your hand is just gonna sink into them, definitely need bigger blades for them," the smith informs him.

"Right...that leaves what, someone with the Mystery ability to give you a quick study on this stuff then we just prepare for the next expedition and I study the info the guild gave us?"

He receives nods of agreement from both his teammates.

"Anything we need to be worried about on those floors?" Thalie asks.

"Eh... I took a look at the next monster-rex, giant ice snake on floor 69, 70 is a safe zone, with the size of the floors and the entire thing being either iced-over lakes or thick blankets of snow the people before us couldn't exactly get too far while carrying resources, but that's where my magic comes in, I already ordered a lot more Salamander Wool so we can make a big tent for us down there," Yang informs them.

"Sounds like a good matchup for us," Welf gives him a confident grin.

"Guess having two fire boys on the team comes in handy, oh.." Thalie looks up at Yang and gives him a devious grin," congratulations by the way, way to go making it official with Freya, rumors spread really damn fast about you walking her around like a trophy yesterday," she chuckles as he gives her an exasperated eye roll.

"Thanks... she's persistent," he says.

"Ya know... you give guys like me hope," Welf says, a tinge of red on his cheeks as he thinks about Hephaestus.

"Yeah well, if you want Hephaestus maybe spend less time in the forge and more with her," Yang says before turning to Thalie, "casino next weekend, you gonna be in Orario?"

"Uh... yeah, I'm just heading to Melene to wait for some people. Then I'll probably come back here and help Welf find his new spot," she shrugs.

"Hmm," Yang raises a finger to his chin as he considers something...extravagant," who runs the floor above us, floor 51?"

"The guild uses it for parties I think, why?" Thalie asks.

"Let's rent it out, we've got a little under two billion in the Trifect account so let's dip into it, if we need more I'll just take a walk down to the Dragon Vase again," he casually says.

"Uh..." they both looked at him with wide eyes, unlike him, they better understood the value of money, he's had no money issues since coming to this world after all.

"What?"

"You wanna rent an entire floor... you realize most big commerce familias can't even afford to rent a floor here right, especially not this high up..." Welf says.

"They also can't collect items from Valgang dragons efficiently if at all, rent the floor, or buy it or whatever I don't care, have Hephaestus make it into our headquarters, apartments for the three of us but the main thing is the forge and armory, that's the priority in this," he says.

"Man, are you sure you aren't a god, cuz this is a serious blessing... everything on a smiths wishlist in a custom forge away from people bothering me..." Welf says as he began to daydream about it, some drool running down the side of his mouth as he zones out.

"Uh..." Thalie gives him a strange look before turning to Yang, "I'll make sure he's ok, Hephaestus doesn't really do construction that's Goinbu since he's the god of architecture after all so I'll have Hephaestus herself make the request to get him moving," she says.

"Thanks, I'll go talk to Airmid," Yang says as he moves to leave, pausing to take one last look at the apartment, "damn, forgot how small my place was before I upgraded it," he says.

"Most adventurers from our familia don't even spend every night in Babel so they just never need to, Hephaestus tends to recruit workaholics," Thalie says.

"Huh...I guess that's why we usually meet in my apartment..." he says while exiting the room.

---15 Minutes Later...

Walking back into Airmids shop, Yang sees her dealing with a custom and takes a walk around the store, picking up a box of Elixirs and Mana Potions as well as some Hi-Potions so he at least had more than just a handful of medical supplies on hand.

As the counter opens up he walks up to her and places his items in front of her.

"Hey Airmid, just this stuff and another two small jars of Crystal Drops," he says, greeting her with a small smile.

Giving him a small nod and a smile Airmid turns around to collect the Crystal Drops.

"Didn't expect to see you back here already, heading into the dungeon?" she asks.

"Nah, just making sure I'm ready for anything, just in case, I'm actually here to ask you for a...special service," he says, looking around to double-check that the store was mostly empty.

Seeing him acting strangely, Airmid furrows her brows and frowns at him, narrowing her eyes as she speaks," I'm not that kind of girl Yang, and Lady Freya---"

"That's not what I meant," he cuts her off quickly, "you've got the mystery ability, one of the 5 people in Orario with it...six people now," he corrects himself.

Her eyes widen slightly at the news, realizing where this is going.

"Did you receive the mystery ability, I didn't think you were the type..."

"No, Welf did, and he needs help making 'Magic Routes' in some of his items," he tells her.

"Ah...so he needs someone to teach him rather than taking years to figure it out himself, with his talent it shouldn't take that long to learn since it works similar to Blacksmith, but physically it's a bit different."

"Exactly, so what's it gonna take for you to help him out, maybe a week or two of classes?" he asks.

"Sorry but I don't think I'd be of any use to him, I only make healing medicine like potions with my ability, working on tools and weapons is beyond me," she admits.

"Damn..."

"Why didn't you ask Heith?" Airmid asks.

"Who?"

"Oh, she's the world's second greatest healer, after myself of course," she gives him a confident smile, rare on the girl's normally stoic face," she leads your girlfriend's medical team, she also has the Mystery skill. Heith the Golden Witch," she tells him.

"Uhh..." Yang rubs the back of his head a bit awkwardly, "I don't think her familia likes me...at all, anyone else?"

"Hmm, I suppose the best person would be Orario's best item make, you'll need the captain of Hermes familia, Asfi Al Andromeda, Perseus..."

END CHAPTER---

Fun Fact: Asfi was the very first romance choice when I made the original plot draft for this book, before I decided to go pre-canon with the story that is.